SMHS: Arc of Redemption
by MasterCaedus
Summary: Jaune Arc would have done anything to get back the woman he loved. And he did do anything; he did everything and it still wasn't enough. He lost his way, and could only find it for the sake of his friends and family. Now he has a chance to fix everything: Sora & Oz send Jaune with Yang to find her mother's Nobody and protect the worlds. But even a past you confront can haunt you.
1. A Fresh Start

**AN: Hey everybody!**

 **I'm glad to be back on this. I got the Disney world and the different world 'visits' I wanted to include figured out faster than I thought, and I decided to not write a different story. That story didn't sound fun anymore, this one did. I hope that it ends up as a fun story and an improvement on the first SMHS.**

 **Right... I guess if you haven't read Smaller, More Honest Souls you should read that before you read this, or even the review responses below. This spin-quel builds pretty heavily on that story.**

 **Speaking of which, responses to a few messages and the last reviews on that story:**

 **To Greymangames: Wow, I actually hadn't noticed the Joestar similarities. No, he's not gonna end up as Joseph, I don't think. It was a... promise I made to a reader earlier on. It is kind of funny, though, because I actually watched that arc of Jojo's for the first time just as I was writing those chapters, so maybe there was a subconscious connection.**

 **To Guest: Thanks. I was happy with how far the story came, too, and I love how highly you think of it. I hope you like this one just as much.**

 **To warrior of six blades: Yeah, I'm sure Qrow is going to love the idea of Ruby alone with a boy, even Sora. I hope this ride turns out as wild for Jaune as you were hoping, because I think it's going to be great.**

 **To gamelover41592: No, thank you for reading. I hope this one is just as good.**

 **To A. Anonymous: I'm happy that I was able to hook you by chapter 12 and that it meant something to you. I hope that this story and the continuing developments – and more so the puns – can live up to your expectations. Thank you.**

 **To SeekerOfDarkN: Thanks. I tried hard to make it enjoyable in every chapter, even the ones that I ... well, I don't want to say 'liked less.' Maybe just that they were slower to write because of how the story was building.**

 **To herooftime69: Thanks for reading. I hope that this new story will be a fun ride.**

 **To LtSnowPanda: If only RWBY was in KH. It would make an awesome world to adventure through! Well, if KH3 ever comes out. It feels like Square Enix has developed the Valve allergy for threequels.**

 **To jacalman: Well, you put the idea in my head. If I feel good about this story and finish it up strong, maybe I will finish this up with a third story in universe. Thanks for the idea!**

 **To ReneTheKeyblader: I'm glad you liked the ending. Endings tend to be difficult to get right, so I'm happy I was able to. I hope this one is just as exciting!**

 **To G3r1k: I'm glad you like the pun as much as I do. I am sad to admit that, at first, I thought it was too much. But the too muchness of it grew on me, and I love it. I can't wait to get to SAO abridged, because that is going to be great!**

 **To Slen D. Man: I'm glad you had fun with SMHS. I was worried that I hadn't weaved the two universes together as well as I had wanted, so I'm glad that turned out well. I do agree on the rushed character development. I felt like I was rushing them a bit, but there was not a lot of extra room to put them in more. I'll try to avoid that same issue in this story, especially since I'll really just be focusing on five core characters and the world companions/villains.**

 **To pypet16: Hey, sorry it took me so long to respond. I was really busy until recently. I really like the idea of a My Hero Academia world, but I ultimately decided to limit myself to four worlds. I wanted to see Season 2 before including that world, and I finished planning before it could come out.**

 _ **Chapter 1: A Fresh Start**_

"I said this world was a bad idea!" Emerald Sustrai snapped at her partner as they sprinted side by side down the walkway. The young thief was dressed in a color not far from her namesake, a crop top with cold shoulder. The sleeves of the shirt continued down to her hands, wrapping around her middle finger to keep them taut. Over the shirt she wore a tight, dark purple vest. A green emerald was emblazoned on the middle of her back. She was wearing a pair of white cargo capris, brown belts holding a pair of green kurasigama-guns to either of her hips and an ancient, golden lamp just behind the one on the left. Her brown boots were hitting the ground with a _clack – clack_ against the stone.

"I thought it looked cool, what do you want?" Mercury retorted, voice somewhat more even than hers. He was wearing a collarless black leather jacket with two silvery lines that matched his hair running parallel down his left arm. His hands were covered by a pair of black, fingerless gloves that led up to a layer of silver armor padding. The jacket's zipper was left partially open, revealing a blue-silver undershirt. He was still wearing his large silver bandana tied to the belt of his jeans; his foot and wings emblem on the cloth in black. His dark gray jeans were tucked a pair of black gun boots that helped hide the shape of his prosthetic legs. "Come on, Em, would you rather be bored?"

"I just wish – " Emerald stopped herself and shook her head. "I just want to say, Merc, that you didn't have to choose the world where everyone is running around with their own type of weird magic!"

"Fire Dragon's... Roar!" Emerald and Mercury both cringed as an explosion of fire rocketed past them, destroying a building and nearly cooking them. "Woops!"

"How did we get these guys angry again?" Emerald asked before hooking a hard right and pulling Mercury with her. The two continued sprinting away with the hopes that they would find the time to open a Corridor of Darkness through which they could escape.

Mercury looked over at her, disbelief on his face. "Y-you're kidding?"

"What? No, really, what was it?" Emerald asked as another explosion of fire echoed out from behind the two of them.

"You _stole_ that girl's collection of magic keys!" Mercury snapped.

"Sssso..?" Emerald asked as she began to twirl the keyring around her left index finger. She tossed them up and caught the gold and silver items in her left hand. "Come on, they're shiny and expensive. God, I hope so at least. Wait, that's what you're angry about?"

"I'm not angry you did it, I'm angry you got caught!" Mercury shouted. He shook his head and looked ahead so he could continue running. "What the hell happened to you being the best thief in the world?"

"And you aren't going to fight them off? I thought you were the best assassin in the world!" Emerald's eyes narrowed angrily and she scoffed. "Look, moron, that was Remnant, for one. For another, how was I supposed to know that pink haired doofus could _smell_ what I was doing!?"

"Yeah, yeah, blame someone else for you not being able to steal some stupid keys," he growled under his breath. "Ugh, and from a blonde bimbo, too. You've lost your touch."

Emerald gasped. "Y-I – I'm insulted."

"Then make it better! How about you make an illusion so we can catch our breath?" Mercury suggested to try and placate the angry girl.

"The redhead can see through them... and she's the scariest one," Emerald muttered. She shook her head as soon as she started to space out. "Just be glad they haven't caught up to us yet and keep running."

"Nyeh nyeh nyeh," Mercury mocked. He pointed at her left hip. "You could make a wish! We get six of them!"

"First off, we only have five! You wasted one of yours 'accidentally' wishing for a new handheld game system! Secondly, we're obviously not going to waste one on running away; we already know how to run away!" Emerald disputed. She sounded annoyed he would even suggest that.

Mercury snapped back, "From the crazy flying girl with swords, the talking cat, and the naked guy shooting ice at us?!" He laughed dryly and threw his head up to the sky. "Sure!"

"Well, I'm just saying that this never would have happened if you'd just let me choose the world we're going to," Emerald huffed. She bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head. "You couldn't make a good decision to save your life."

"Fine, then choose the next world and get us our damn portal, Woman!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Hey, could you two stop flirting while we chase you?!" the naked guy called, his tone cold and annoyed.

"Could you stop stripping?!" Mercury retorted over his shoulder. He shook his head and returned his attention in front of him before breathing out a single, angry word: "Perv!"

The response was an explosion of ice on their heels.

"God dammit, just throw the keys at them!" Mercury suggested with an annoyed breath. He sighed. "Maybe then we'd at least be able to get a few seconds without these nutjobs behind us."

"I stole them fair and square; they should just deal with it," Emerald muttered venomously.

"They're not going to," Mercury pointed out simply. He jerked his head to the side and a beam of light shot past it. "So, maybe this once, we just throw the small fish back?"

"... No," she said simply.

"Really?" Mercury asked dryly. "Jeez, ever since you made us work with Keyboy and the other idiots you've been making stupid decisions."

"We prevented the end of the universe by helping them!"

"Ga – Just – Shut it!" Mercury snapped, his arm snaking out like lightning and yanking the keys from her hand.

"Hey, don't steal those from me," Emerald ordered, already reaching for the keys in Merc's outstretched hand. "I stole them, they're mine!"

"No! Now choose where we're going!" Mercury growled back. He jumped and turned around where he was, throwing the keys as he was midair. The gold and silver loop jangled until it hit the ground in front of the naked guy, at which point the three chasing them slid to a momentary stop. Merc landed and continued running alongside Emerald. "Have you picked?"

"Fine, here!" Emerald shouted back. She waved her hand, summoning up a pillar of inky Darkness in front of them. The two sprinted through it side by side, the portal shutting just as another swirling vortex of fire threatening to barbecue them came their way.

They came out on the other side a few moments later, panting with their hands on their knees. "What the... hell was that?" Mercury groaned as he tried to catch his breath. He shook his head and stood up straight to have a look around. "Where are we?"

Emerald stood up and looked around, taking in the sights. "It's... huh." The two were standing atop a huge, oddly shaped plateau overlooking a city of brown roofed and white walled feudal buildings. Nearby, at the center of the plateau, was a huge spear maybe fifty feet long sticking straight up with a series of ropes extending from it radially to the ground, holding it up. At the dropoff of the outcropping was a pair of wooden beams maybe three quarters of the spear's height were connected with another beam to form an 'H.' Emerald turned and looked the other direction at a white tower connected to the plateau via a thin, wooden bridge. "I could've sworn this place was a city when I chose it."

"It's called 'Soul Kingdom' Al."

"Oh, dammit," Emerald groaned as the lamp on her hip rattled for a moment until a bright blue burst of smoke exploded from within it. The smoke twirled around Mercury and Emerald, spinning around and congealing into the shape of a cartoon-y, large blue man. He had a black beard twirling off of his large, round chin, and a black ponytail extending from his otherwise bald head. He had sharp ears that pointed upward with a golden earring in either earlobe that matched the golden bands around his wrists. He had no legs and only four fingers, though, so it was a little unnerving to look at. Emerald pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. "What, why, and how, Genie?"

"Soul Kingdom, specifically Soul Society," the Genie explained as he began to fly around the area nearby. He stopped in front of the huge spear and suddenly turned into a warrior in a black uniform with a long katana on his hip. He turned back to Emerald and Mercury, his face suddenly fare more serious and angular.

"Much danger is here.

My nearly cosmic powers

are how I know this."

"A haiku, Blue?" Mercury muttered, annoyed. He pointed his finger forcefully at the genie. "Just give us a straight answer! What dangers are here? What is this place?"

Genie immediately shifted into a round looking bald man with a bright cape. "Calm down, Genos," he said monotonously before shifting back to his original form. "There's tons of stuff here to worry about, Silver the Hedgehog."

"What are these things you're saying?!" Emerald snapped, but the Genie ignored that question.

"From what my phenomenal powers and knowledge let me know," Genie continued, putting one index finger up and shaking it, "this place is really dangerous. There's giant monsters called Hollows that eat souls, and some really serious people with swords who try to kill... everything. I think we're in their home base, actually."

"Then we can just leave," Mercury pointed out simply. He sighed and shook his head. "Can we pick somewhere we can actually get in a fight for once? I'm bored of going places you think you can steal stuff instead of somewhere I can get in an actual fight. You know, one without pink haired crazies or redheads who blow up towns. Ideally."

"Oh, so you're a coward now?" Emerald suggested.

"Oh, so you can't steal things now?" Mercury reiterated, shutting the girl up.

"Jerk."

"You love me."

"Aw, aren't you two just adorable?" Genie asked mockingly, batting his suddenly over pronounced eyelashes at the two.

Em and Merc both turned on the huge blue man. "Ew, gross!" Emerald snapped.

"Really?" Merc asked. He shook his head. "What, would you prefer Blondie or Keyboy? Oh! How about Pinkie?" Mercury rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Cause that sounds _great."_

"Better than you," Emerald huffed, crossing her arms and looking away from him.

"I have a crazy idea." The thief and assassin turned towards the Genie, skeptical at whatever idea the strange blue being could have. Genie cleared his throat and pointed at them. "How about you go somewhere you can be... heroes!" On the last word, he separated into seven different clones of himself, some wearing capes, some with wings, and each with a different emblem emblazoned on their chests.

"For truth!" the one in the front shouted, a large 'S' on his chest.

"For justice!" the one in dark blue cried out, voice gravelly.

"For –"

Mercury and Emerald cut the Genie off in tandem: "Lame."

The Genie's clones slammed back into one. "But -"

"Come on, let's get going," Mercury muttered, turning on his heel and getting ready to open a portal. Darkness began to appear around his hand, but he was momentarily distracted by an explosion far above. Mercury, Emerald, and the Genie all turned at the same time to the source of the noise. A bright blue orb of Light had crashed into a dome far above them, filling the air with a burning before, suddenly, the orb exploded. The dome faltered for a moment, a hole appearing in it through which a number of thin silhouettes fell. It took almost no time for alarms to sound out all around this 'Soul Society.'

"Crap!" Emerald growled. She turned to Mercury. "Open the portal!"

He nodded and summoned the Darkness to his hand. "Here we... go!" He swept it across his chest, summoning the portal. Or, he should have. Nothing showed up in the place where he had summoned the portal.

"Any time now," Emerald hissed as the Genie began to snake away into his Lamp once more, hiding from whatever was coming. Mercury tried again. "Open the portal!"

"I'm trying!" Mercury snapped over his shoulder.

Emerald rolled her eyes and growled, "Then just let me do it." She shoved Mercury to the side and summoned Darkness to her own hand then tried to summon up her own portal of Darkness. Again, none came.

Emerald grinned nervously and turned towards the annoyed Mercury. "I thought you were just being stupid," she said simply.

"Thanks, Em, now we know we're _both_ being stupid."

"Ha ha. They probably have some sort of barrier up so we can't get out." Emerald frowned and placed one hand on her chin. "Then -"

"Uh, Em."

"Ugh, don't interrupt -" Emerald spun on him and froze. A pair of warriors dressed in black uniforms were standing a few dozen feet away, both of them drawing their blades out of different colored sheathes on their hips. The one on Emerald and Mercury's right was a man, maybe six feet tall at most. His black hair was shaved close at the sides and slicked back on the top. The woman on the left was about four inches shorter than her partner, with brown hair done in a pixie cut.

The woman angled her blade at the two. "Freeze, Ryoka! Prepare for your deaths!"

"They're not the best at this," Emerald noted.

Mercury snorted. "We had threatening people down by day three. They need to get their act together."

"Hey, do you think that's what everyone here wears?" Emerald asked, an evil grin coming to her face. "Those serious people with swords?"

"I think they'd fit us," Mercury agreed. "These two don't look that dangerous, either." Emerald and Mercury grinned excitedly at each other for a split second, then both rushing at their newfound opponents.

Mercury decided to take the guy on a whim, sprinting nowhere near his considerable full speed. When about fifteen feet away, Mercury tensed his legs and threw himself into the air, flipping and lashing out with his right foot. The warrior caught the blow on the flat of his blade and was forced back a few feet by the force of the blow. Mercury quickly moved into the next attack, he left foot coming around to attack the man's head. This, too, was blocked. "Ooh, you're a bit faster than I thought," Mercury said with a smirk. He jumped a few feet away. "Maybe Blue was right and you guys might be a little dangerous!" He got into his battle stance again and grinned, summoning a blaze of black flames to his boots before rushing the swordsman.

Meanwhile, Emerald was spinning her kurasigama around her, using the unpredictability of the weapons to her advantage. The blades attached to the chains would flick out at the woman in black, forcing her on the defensive. Emerald knew that getting in close would mean a slightly more even battle, and she wasn't going to risk that right now. Of course, she also had to be careful not to destroy the outfit the woman was wearing, otherwise she'd be stuck using her Semblance to keep them hidden. And, given what had happened with the last world they'd landed on, that might not work out well. On the next block, Emerald flicked her wrist and managed to wrap her chains around the sword. "Let go, Ryoka scum!" the woman snapped, struggling against Emerald's chains.

"Sure, because that would help me," Emerald remarked dryly. She pulled hard once more, and the woman came flying at her. Emerald grinned and jumped, twirling midair to land a spin kick to the woman's face. The swordswoman grunted in pain as the boot heel collided with her nose, sending a spray of red blood into the air. Emerald twirled as the woman began to fly away, entangling her in chains so the thief could swing the swordswoman overhead and into the ground. Emerald stared at the woman on the ground for a few moments, wondering if she was unconscious. She decided to summon a Thunder just in case, the yellow electricity coursing down the chains. The woman in black screamed out in pain for a moment, then went quiet. Emerald grinned then turned to look over at how Mercury was doing. "You done yet?"

"Just about," Mercury said as he kicked a sword slash away with his burning foot. He ducked beneath a swipe and slammed his shoulder into the swordsman's chest, causing him to stumble back. Mercury then jumped, changing the magic coating his feet from Fire to Sleep, and drop kicked the black clothed swordsman in the chest. The purple energy exploded around his body, and he flew back a dozen feet until he landed in an unconscious bundle of black. Merc turned to Emerald and grinned. "I was just trying to make sure you didn't screw up."

"Oh, please," Emerald scoffed. "You'd be a thousand times more likely to screw up than I would." She walked over to the woman she'd knocked unconscious and began to take the outer, black uniform.

Mercury rolled his eyes. "In your dreams." He took the upper half of the outfit from his opponent and wrapped it around his shoulders, then pulled the pants on over his own. He turned towards Emerald. "What do you think? Hot, or not? Oh, why bother... we both know your answer."

"You're right. _Not_ ," Emerald snarled. She finished tying the outfit shut then gestured at their fallen foes. "We need to figure out something so these two idiots don't follow us."

"I say we just throw them off the edge," Mercury muttered. He groaned. "No, they'd find the bodies and figure out someone took their clothes. We should tie them up, I guess. No fun..."

"Wow, look at you having a good idea."

"Shut up, _Al._ "

Emerald holstered one of her weapons in the folds of the outfit and pointed the other at her partner. "I thought I said not to call me that!"

"Oh, but Blue gets to?" Mercury shook his head and clutched at his chest. "My heart!"

"Idiot," Emerald grumbled. She put her other weapon away and grabbed his shoulder, dragging him off behind her. "Come on, we can tie them up to the big stand with some magic. That'll give us time at least."

"Okay, Al." He was silenced by a slap to the face.

 _ **S M H S**_

 _Less Than Two Months Ago_

The figure in the black coat walked along the path through the middle of a forest coated in snow. Snow crunched underneath his feet, leaving behind only his footprints between the massive pines. He walked in silence, hood pulled over his head and hands tucked into his pockets to shield him from the cold. Every so often an animal would screech deep within the woods or jump from tree to tree, causing snow to fall and _thuds_ to echo through the forest. He didn't look once at the source of the noise, as he knew he was in no danger regardless of what came. This world had nothing that could kill him.

Then a new noise echoed through the empty darkness of the moonlit forest. The man looked up at the moon and stopped moving. He could hear something was coming, something large and powerful. Trees were falling to the ground, the noise of their crashing to the ground dulled by the inches of fresh, powdery snow that covered the ground. Soon, however, the earth beneath his feet began to shudder. A loud, echoing _thud_ that rattled his body, shook all the snow beneath his feet, and caused the tail of his long black coat to flutter wildly. The creature grew closer and closer, eventually shrieking in hunger as it smelled the young man standing alone in the forest. Trees swayed and fell into one another, snow and dirt were tossed into the air far above. The figure sighed and pulled his hands out of his pockets just as the creature crashed through the edge of the forest.

The figure in the coat jumped backwards, flipping through the air and landing with a quiet _crunch_ a dozen feet away. He stood up slowly as the creature shrieked at the moon, rearing up on its hind legs for a few moments before slamming its feet back down and glaring at him. The creature had a dark black and purple body, aside from the light blue, jagged designs trailing from its eyes and down its back. Spines of pink and magenta flowed out in a jagged mane around its head and three along its back. Giant chains with grappling hooks at the ends were wrapped around both of its front legs, which ended in huge, cruel looking purple claws. A black tail with erratic spikes extended from the back of its body. Its beady, yellow eyes followed the cloaked figure closely.

The figure threw his hand out to his right side, summoning up an aura of crackling black and white originating in his fist. A Keyblade appeared, the ancient weapon that controlled Light and Dark and determined the fate of worlds. The creature had followed its scent to find him like a beast drawn to the scent of the prey it desired the most. He lowered the weapon to his side and slid his left foot forward a half step before raising his left hand a few inches as if to hold the creature at bay. The creature flinched at the sight of the weapon, its claws digging into the snow and leaving long, jagged lines in the white. It regained its composure a moment later and the clenched claws dug into the ground to prepare for leaping forward.

It jumped, claws glinting in the light. The grappling hooks shot forward, whipping towards him from opposite directions. The figure didn't move for a while, waiting for the attacks to get close. When they finally did, he jumped into the air. One of the attacks flew past him, slamming into the ground where he had been a half second earlier. The other seemed to have been thrown in anticipation of his movement, whipping towards where he was now. He looped the teeth of his Keyblade around the chain and tossed them both at the monster. The hook shot towards the Heartless and the Keyblade returned to its master's hand in a burst of black and white, giving the figure time to launch a Fira spell after the hook.

The Heartless battered its own hook away, but this left it wide open to the Fira that spiraled after the metal. The embers crashed into its head, singing the spires arching from its face. The Heartless shrieked and swiped uselessly at the air, causing it to stumble backwards. Its back crashed into one of the trees, causing a loud crash to echo through the empty forest. The figure landed and began to sprint at the monster, holding his Keyblade out to his side as his other hand moved back and forth with every step. He jumped and raised his Keyblade above his head in both hands, preparing to bring it down in a heavy blow that would bisect the monster. It recovered in time to spin out of his path, leaving only one of its chains in a trail to be slashed apart. It disappeared, turning invisible and hiding in the shadows of the forest. The Keyblade wielder landed with a quiet thud in front of the tree, paying no mind to the chain melting away into the Darkness beside him. He turned his attention to the forest around him, looking for the creature that was now hiding from him. Every so often a flash of red would appear somewhere beyond the treeline, only to disappear once more.

It came out again a moment later, a streak of flames attached to its heels. The Keyblade Wielder raised his Keyblade in front of his body defensively, though it moved slowly, as if he was letting the attack hit him. He was thrown backwards by the attack, though the resulting wall of Reflect barriers stopped the monster in its tracks. He soared through the air and flipped until his feet collided with a tree, at which point he threw himself at it again. The creature, now visible again, hissed. Its spines shook angrily and flames began to congeal in front of its gaping maw, flames that launched themselves at him when they reached critical mass.

The Keyblade wielder simply raised his weapon in front of him, holding it straight out in front of his body, and cut it in half. He continued with the momentum as the two halves of the fire burst flew away from him and exploded against the trees behind him. The Keyblade came around, locking with the Heartless' claws. The force of the blow sent the monster tumbling to its back. The Keyblade Wielder landed on its chest as snow and pine needles began to rain down around them. He raised his weapon above his head, spinning it around and around, and ignited it with a stream of Dark Thunder; he buried in the monster's chest, and it writhed in agony resultant of the weight of the power within its form. Darkness streamed out of its body in every direction, arching towards the sky in wispy tendrils. The body of the Heartless began to slowly drift away to nothingness. He pulled his weapon from the monster's decaying chest and stood up to his full height. When the Heartless finally disappeared completely, the snow came into contact with his feet again and crunched beneath his boots.

On a whim, he glanced down at the weapon in his hand. It was a gnarled weapon, dark black with silvery designs etched into it. The pommel and guard were formed from a pair of demonic, leathery wings that extended from behind the head of a grinning goat. The main body of the weapon was formed from two barbed blades, the silvery designs forming thorns along the length of each. They came together at the top, forming the teeth of the blade in another demonic, shadowy wing, at the joint of which was a bright blue eye with a cat-like sliver of a pupil. The Keychain that extended from its base was deep black, with the blue eye covering a shape of jagged angles. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind only a shower of black and white sparks when it was dismissed. He placed his hands in his pockets and began to walk down the path again.

"Are you here?" he asked the air after a few seconds more of walking. There was no response, naturally. "If not, there's always the next. Or the next. The one after. You're out there somewhere, and I'll find you. I'll find you even if I have to travel to a thousand worlds."

A portal of inky blackness appeared in front of him, a gateway across the Lanes Between the newly formed worlds. As the figure walked through he said one more time, "I _**will**_ find you."

 _ **S M H S**_

"Wa-a-ahoo!" Yang Xiao Long screamed as the Gummi Ship shot away from the surface of Remnant, her home. Ruby Rose – Yang's half sister – and Sora – Ruby's Keyboytoy – had come to send her off on her grand adventure. She was literally living her greatest dream: the adventure that no one else had ever had before. She couldn't wait to see everything out there!

"Sto-o-op..."

Yang sighed, annoyed at the noise coming from behind and to her right. She'd almost forgotten that someone else was on this trip with her. The bombshell looked over at her partner on this journey and shook her head. He was wearing blue jeans tucked into a pair of black and white combat boots. The jeans were held up by a lopsided belt and pouch over a sash made of red cloth. He had a black sweat shirt with red interior on over a white shirt, though they were both mostly hidden behind a heavy plate of white armor with golden filigree. Jaune Arc had bracers and hand armor over black gloves that matched his chest armor and sweatshirt respectively; the gold covered each segment of his fingers and the back of his hand. The white formed the bracer and led to a small oval of armor over his elbows. His left shoulder had an ornate piece of armor strapped to it, with a point that flared up from on top of his shoulder. There was a large silver circle at the center of the pauldron with a golden, rising sun emblem imprinted upon it in turn. The blonde boy's eyes were shut tight and his pale skin had become a deep shade of green. "Oh, come on, Vomit Boy! I just got through telling you to keep it in if you don't want me to kill you!"

"Yang, plenty of people all across Remnant are susceptible to motion sickness!" he snapped back at her, opening his blue eyes and getting some color back in his cheeks.

"I do not enjoy being yelled at, Jaune" Yang said after a moment, an evil grin spreading across her face.

"Y-Yang? You aren't going to – _DON'T!_ " Jaune's eyes slammed shut and the green returned, twice as deep now, as Yang pulled up on the controls for the Gummi Ship and started to roar excitedly. The ship began to pitch upward, the world spinning around it for a few moments until they were upside down. She kept pulling in the same direction, forcing the ship to complete the loop the loop. Jaune fell back in his seat, fairly certain he was about to die when the world tunneled to a pinprick of light. "Ooghf... You did... You did it."

"Don't be such a baby, Jaune," Yang admonished again, though she did decide to tone down the fun a little bit. He looked like he was actually about to live up to the nick name Vomit Boy, and Yang didn't want that ending up on her shoes _again_. "Look, we're heading straight up. No more loops."

"Thank you," Jaune grumbled sarcastically when his brain finally started to return to normal. He made it a point to _not_ look out of the ship, however, since that would only make the motion sickness worse. Better to stare at the floor of this massive spaceship. The shiny floor that... that reflected what was outside of the domed cockpit. "I hate this thing so much."

"Jaune, keep whining and I will punch you in the face as hard as I can to knock you out." Yang smirked cruelly over her shoulder. "And if that doesn't work, I'll just do another loop."

"Sorry!" Jaune shouted, terrified and holding his hands up to try and disarm the young woman. He grimaced at that thought. She did only have one arm, so maybe disarm wasn't the best way to describe it. On the other hand – _Darn it, I'm as bad as Yang with these,_ Jaune thought to himself. – she did love a good pun. 'Good' being a relative term. Objectively wrong, really.

"Good. You should be," Yang stated matter-of-factly. She returned her attention to the ship's path and began to simply fly, humming to herself as she flew past the blue of Remnant's sky and into the Darkness that divided the worlds.

Jaune glared at the back of the woman's head, from where her blonde hair fell to her waist. She was wearing a black, brown, and golden outfit consisting of black pants and a long, tan—gold coat with orange lining and a golden border. She had a purple sash tied around her left knee, shortly above where her brown boots with bronze reinforced toes and heels crested. Her orange shirt peeked out slightly from beneath her diagonally zipped jacket and matched the inside and top of the high, almost scarf like collar the jacket had. A black glove covered the hand of her robotic right arm, and her golden weapon covered her wrists in bracelet form. Ember Celica, a pair of shotgun bracers that were specially designed for the woman's brawling style of fighting.

Jaune did see at least one thing was going well. Yang's Semblance had yet to erupt and destroy the ship. When the woman got angry, her hair lit up like fire and her lilac eyes turned the bloody red of her mothers'. Also, things around her tended to explode and burn down. The mere thought of the ship breaking apart around them made Jaune feel sick again.

"Okay, Blondie -"

"You're blonde, too!" Jaune pointed out, unsure why he was insulted.

"Ah, but you're the dumb one," Yang pointed out, shooting a look over her shoulder at him. Jaune _wanted_ to argue, but he knew he couldn't. He was the dumb one.

Almost helping someone destroy the universe tended to prove that.

Jaune had been reeling when it had happened. He had not gotten over the idea of losing the woman he had loved, someone who had believed in him when no one else had. His partner, his best friend, Pyrrha Nikos. Then he had learned the people he was helping and trying to save had been responsible for Pyrrha's death, at least partially. Ozpin and his circle had tried to give Pyrrha abilities that the bad guys wanted for themselves. Cinder Fall may have been the one to kill Pyrrha, but that was only because of Ozpin. At least, that was the line that Salem had sold Jaune to get him to betray his friends.

He had been friends with Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren, and Ruby Rose for so long. Those three had been through thick and thin with him even during the Beacon days when he could barely hold a sword at the right end. Then Sora came along, a visitor from the far past and another world, swinging his Keyblade and hunting down his biggest enemy. They had all been Jaune's friends through everything, but he had thrown that away for a promise he had known was empty. "Ozpin had been responsible for Pyrrha's death, but I can bring them back," Salem had said. It had only taken those words and suddenly Jaune had been more than willing to try and kill his friends, unleash a giant dragon on Vale, nearly get the entire Kingdom killed by a sonic bomb, and bring an entire universe worth of Darkness back into existence. Still, after all of that, Sora, Ruby, and the others hadn't simply forgiven him, they'd kept treating him like a friend. Jaune wasn't sure he could have forgiven someone else for all the stuff he'd done. Sure, Salem had influenced his Heart with the Keyblade, but at the end of the day he had still had a choice. That had been why he'd betrayed her and helped his friends out, after all. He had still had a choice.

He looked up and clenched his fists on top of his legs. This was his chance to make up for all that. Sora had given him and Yang this ship so they could go out and protect worlds from people like Salem that wanted to spread Darkness. Sora and the others had sent Jaune with Yang so he would have some company and so he could help her look out for her mother's Nobody. It was his responsibility, too, to an extent. Raven Xiao Long had been turned into a Heartless helping the others get away from Salem... after Jaune had betrayed them. Sora said that destroying both someone's Heartless and their Nobody could bring them back, and Morrigan had succeeded in killing Raven's Heartless. Yang and he just had to find and beat Morrigan and Raven would come back. Jaune fought off a slight streak of anger at the unfairness of that; he couldn't bring Pyrrha back, but Yang could bring her mom back?

Jaune shook off that envy; Yang was his friend, and they were going to be traveling together a lot over the next... while. He couldn't think like that about a friend. He couldn't let the Darkness get a foothold in his Heart again and risk once more becoming someone else, someone he didn't like. The temptation was there, of course. Darkness would always be part of him, but Sora had told him many times that it rested on him to fight that Darkness. He –

"Whoa..." Jaune looked up and saw Yang had let go of the controls, instead opting to let her hands dangle at her sides. She was staring out of the cockpit, slackjawed. Jaune blinked once and followed her gaze.

"Whoa..." Jaune echoed.

It was... beautiful. Stars could be seen in every direction, pinpricks of gleaming and beautiful white in an endless sea of swirling violet and black. Pathways of blues and greens flowed through the universe, rivers and currents through the unending Darkness that would swirl around their ship and carry them far from their home. It was difficult to make out at the literally astronomical distance, but he could even see some shapes coming out of the stars. One had a huge wall of ice extending upward from the northern edge and a rust red castle rising up from the south. Another was topped with a castle of glittering, clear ice with a white stone castle on the opposite pole. Beyond that, there were countless more, no two of them exactly alike. Worlds of water or fire, cities and nature. Jaune gulped in pain as the ship around him pitched suddenly, turning around. "Motion sickne...ss... I..." He left his mouth open and stared.

Remnant was floating in the Darkness before them. It looked so huge with how close it was, filling up almost all of the area could see outside of the cockpit. A gleaming castle of emerald, its beautiful new spires shining in the sparkling light. In the courtyard stood a statue of a man and woman standing atop the battered form of a Beowolf shrieking in rage. Beacon Academy, the home of the now Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch and the place from which the new Amity Arena would launch for its tour across every kingdom. Gone was the Dragon, gone was the destruction, and gone was the Darkness that had hung over the world. To the south was an unfinished temple, at this point just a single wall. At the center was a door, tall, thin, and rectangular, that formed the handle of a large Keyblade etched into its surface. The Kingdom Key. Once Sora's weapon, now gifted to Jaune himself.

"Shouldn't Atlas be up north?" Jaune asked when he could speak again.

"Sora said something about it being places important to the World," Yang muttered, still awed with her eyes locked on their home world.

"So Beacon and... whatever that is are the most important places on Remnant," Jaune noted. He wasn't sure why those places, especially one he didn't even know about, were the most important places on their home world.

Yang looked over at him, surprised for a moment. Then: "Oh, right! You wouldn't know, would you?" Yang shook her head and grinned. "Yeah, that place is the new Keyblade Academy. Oz and Sora are going to work there, and we're gonna keep an eye out for any other Keyblades. It'll be a regular key party!"

"Don't... I already heard that from your uncle," Jaune said, thinking back to his time at Haven academy, which now felt so long ago. "It was worse coming from you."

"You're no fun," Yang grumbled, turning back to the controls so she could angle the ship away from their home.

"Hey... I'll have you know plenty of people think I'm fun!" Jaune protested angrily.

"Who?" Yang mocked as the ship began to pick up speed, the stars turning into gleaming streaks outside of the cockpit window. Worlds passing the two of them by.

"Ugh..." Jaune grumbled. Yang was a cruel partner; how had Ruby, Weiss, and Blake dealt with this?! "Tons... Tons of people!"

Yang scoffed. "Oh, sure. Let me restate the question – who thinks you're fun that isn't your mom?"

Jaune decided he wasn't going to dignify that question with a response, because _plenty_ of people thought he was fun. Yang was just trying to annoy him for fun, and he wasn't going to give her the pleasure of making him motion sick _and_ annoyed. One or the other, not both. "Oh, I hurt your feelings? Sorry," Yang said irreverently.

"Fly slower!" Jaune snapped, giving in to both the motion sickness and being annoyed.

"No," Yang said with a grin, instead pushing on the accelerator even harder. Jaune's head snapped back and slammed into the cushioned headrest of the seat, which served to deepen his anger.

"Five minutes in and you're trying to kill me!?" Jaune yelled, already done with Yang. He unbuckled from his seat and threw himself forward, face shifting slowly from green as he shoved his motion sickness down with his anger. "No, move over, I am driving!"

Yang brought her hand up and tried to shove him away. "No, you'd just crash the ship you idiot!" She pushed as hard as she could against Jaune's cheek, squishing his face and keeping his outstretched fingers from being able to grab onto the wheel. "Now get back in your seat before you puke on me! I'll have to kill you if you do!"

"Give me the ship!"

"NO!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Jaune dove forward, aiming to tackle her to the side so he could just take the ship. Unfortunately, Yang was strong enough to _mostly_ resist. She was tossed to the side, yes, but recovered quickly. This had the negative side effect of causing Jaune's outstretched and lanky leg to slam into the wheel of the ever faster moving Gummi Ship, which veered off course and towards a nearby world before the two passengers within could realize what was happening. "Give it here!" Jaune shouted.

"N – Is it getting bright in here?" Yang asked when the Light of the world began to fill the cockpit. Jaune stopped trying to go for the controls and began to look around in confusion. It was getting – Jaune hit the ground. Yang was smirking down at him, happy she had finally been able to throw him off. "Good, now we can worry about this -"

Yang was cut off when the ship's cockpit opened suddenly, sending the two blondes flying in completely different directions towards the world below. Jaune reached out for her, trying to keep them from getting separated. "Yang!" he shouted, stretching as far as he could, their fingers brushing against one another for a second. Jaune gritted his teeth and held his right hand out further, summoning a burst of golden light to his right hand. A golden and silver key appeared in his outstretched fist, the teeth of the weapon waving in front of Yang. "Grab on!"

Yang reached out and grabbed onto the round blade of the weapon, clutching it tight in her fist. Then she pulled hard on it, causing the two to rush towards each other. Jaune dismissed the Kingdom Key and reached out with his hand, grabbing Yang's flailing limb. "Jaune!"

"What?" Jaune shouted back, eyes squinting through the bright light of the sun and the wind rushing across his face.

Yang stifled a laugh before shouting as loud as she possibly could, "I hope you're not _falling_ for me!"

"..." Jaune thought _very_ hard about letting go of Yang's hand. The choice was not his to make, however, as a ball of bright blue light slammed into their bodies, the force concetrated on their outstretched arms. Jaune felt Yang's fingers slide from his at the sudden jolt of force and he was suddenly spinning, the feeling of motion sickness rising again in his he spun, he briefly saw a blue orb filled with the silhouettes of people, but it was soon replaced by a bright flash and a wave of energy that sent Jaune and Yang flying even further apart.

"We must stick together. Anyone who gets separated will be blown away by the explosion!" a small, masculine voice called out. Jaune thought he saw the voice coming from a small black cat, but that didn't sound likely. Next he saw someone with orange hair and a sword way too large to be practical strapped across his back throwing a small auburn haired girl towards the rest of his group before the explosion the cat had mentioned sent him and a guy in green flying towards Jaune. The three crashed into one another in a jumble of limbs before tumbling towards the ground as one.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune Arc was falling, plummeting downward towards what looked like an ocean below. Water stretched out in every direction around him, waves moving forever across the world. He could hear them swaying and crashing into each other, a constant white noise surrounding him. He stared at them while the wind whipped past his face and the smell of salt filled the air. He turned his head, catching sight of a dark storm of thunderclouds in the distance. The blue flame of lightning would erupt every so often, somehow casting everything else into shadow rather than illuminating it. Jaune blinked once, growing somewhat scared of the Darkness that filled that region. He knew in his gut it belonged to him somehow. He wanted to turn away, to not look at it, but he knew he couldn't do that. It belonged to him.

He hit the water a moment later. He slammed his eyes shut upon impact, and suddenly he could feel it rush around him. He knew it should be filling his throat, drowning him and keeping him from being able to think. Instead, it felt like air. He was still falling through the air. It was no different from earlier, when he was falling towards the sea, except now there was nothing below him. Nothing save for an endless abyss of inky black. Bubbles rushed from his mouth but he continued to breathe normally. In and out, in and out. He landed softly against something a few seconds later.

He laid on his back for some time, staring at the light of the sun that was barely able to penetrate this far into the ocean. All that was visible was a small circle of yellow Light that pierced the Darkness.

Jaune sat up and Light began to shine from beneath him. Jaune stood up and looked down, casting his eyes on the surface beneath his feet. The main body of it was a bright yellow, with silvery accents forming images all along it. Intricate shapes curled around, curving ever so slightly. Jaune followed their path with his eyes, eventually finding they came to a complete stop at his feet. A loop, a circle, a cylindrical pillar. Images were littered across the surface. A ring of white and silver rising sun emblems ran along the outer edge of the platform, white then silver in a pattern. On one end of the pillar was a series of silhouettes. One had spiky hair outlined in yellow that reached out in every direction, forming jagged knives coming from the head. Another had spiky hair as well, though it was much more tame and was tinged a strawberry orange. The third had two figures within, one gray-white with long shapes like bunny ears coming out of the top of its head and the other orange with triangular shapes like wolf or fox ears and a long snout. The fourth one had a much more plain figure, with calm hair and only a pure black outline; the only interesting thing about it was the pair of sword hilts coming out of its back.

The last was larger, surrounded by the other four. It was surrounded by a black ring and had a more golden glow as its main body than the rest of the pillar. Hair that burned yellow, gold, orange, and red glowed like fire rising up from the silhouette's shoulders. It was a woman, and a familiar one at that. He wasn't sure who it was in the image, but he knew that he knew her somehow, as if he had known her for a very long time.

He turned to the other end of the pillar to catch sight of another pillar in the distance. It glowed with a dark purple energy. Jaune frowned and thought of the directions, retracing directions in his mind until he realized that this other pillar was directly beneath the place where the thunderstorm had been. Jaune walked towards the edge closest to the other pillar. He peered as far as he could, trying to focus on the other pillar so he could see what was there. In the distance, alone on the pillar, Jaune could see something – someone, maybe – running around, enraged. It was simply a black sliver so far away, thrashing its stick arms about. It wanted something, it was searching for it so desperately. Jaune felt... bad for it, whatever it was. For himself, he supposed. It was darkness, and it was him.

"Are you alright?"

Jaune looked around for the source of the voice. "Hey, Man, you alright?"

Jaune's eyes flew open, and he was faced with two people.

The first had bright orange hair, almost strawberry in color. It didn't conceal any of a thin and incredibly angular face. His features and dark brown eyes had a naturally concerned look to them, though that did not subtract from the anger, dedication, and unpredictability present within them. He was dressed in all black, with wide pants that looked almost like robes when close together. His shirt had large and loose sleeves with another, inner sleeve of white just peeking out. This revealed his thin, albeit very toned and muscular arms. Strapped across his back was a huge sword wrapped up in white bandages, though from the shape Jaune could tell it probably looked like a giant meat cleaver. The bandages were wrapped also around the handle of the weapon to form a grip. He was holding one hand out to Jaune to help him up.

The other man was basically the first's polar opposite. He had a long and blocky face complete with a jawline that could only be described as a foot long rectangle. His dark black hair was long and flared out in spikes where it ended at the middle of his neck. It was covered up on the top with a green bandana tied up to keep it out of his eyes. He had a green vest that matched the bandana over his white tunic. Black bands were over his forearms, the only part of his sizable arms that was covered. His shirt was tucked into a pair of black, puffy pants with white designs on both thighs and tightened to his waist by a red sash with a bag and large knife on the back. The green vest trailed past the belt, creating a small train. The pants were tucked into black shin guards that connected to his sandals and covered his white socks. He was glaring down at Jaune with one eyebrow raised – an eyebrow that Jaune noticed was half shaved off.

Jaune looked down when he noticed the ground felt weird. He blinked in confusion when he saw that he was in a bowl filled with sand in the middle of a white stone walkway. "Where – Yang!" He struggled to his feet in the deep pit of sand and began frantically looking around. "Yang! Ya -"

"Hey, shut up, you're going to get us killed!" the guy with orange hair hissed, slamming his hand over Jaune's mouth to muffle him. "I'd rather not have a thousand Soul Reapers here trying to kill us!"

Jaune stopped resisting at that term. Soul Reaper? That sounded bad enough on its own. The orange haired guy slowly let go. "Good. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki. The dumb looking one over there is Ganju," the orange haired young man explained. Ganju growled angrily and glared at the other person. Jaune turned around and found that they were about the same height, with Ichigo being maybe three inches shorter. Ichigo held his hand out."And who are you?"

"Oh, um, I'm Jaune," the Keyblade wielder said without thinking. He took Ichigo's hand and shook it. "I'm sorry, but, uh, have you seen a blonde. Maybe an inch taller than you. She's loud, likes punching things." Ichigo and Ganju gave him a confused look. "Yeah, I'd guess not. We got separated when we – fell here." He shook his head; he'd almost said 'Arrived in this world.' He wasn't sure why, but just saying that sounded like it would be a bad idea. He frowned inwardly. Come to think of it, how was this world already so... advanced if it was brand new? Jaune made a mental note to ask Sora or Ozpin about that the next time he saw one of them.

"No. Maybe she's with our friends, though. We got separated when we broke in, too." He nodded at Jaune, face still serious. "We're here to save one of our friends from being executed, and we need to find them and rescue her before they run into any Soul Reapers."

"Or before we do," Ganju pointed out.

"I could deal with Soul Reapers," Ichigo growled at Ganju, getting close and confrontational with him.

"You? Please, you couldn't even deal with keeping your Spiritual Pressure stable!" Ganju retorted, slamming his index finger into Ichigo's chest.

"I kept it stable enough for us to actually break through, didn't I? I could totally deal with any Soul Reaper that came our way!"

"Yahoo! What luck! " Jaune, Ichigo, and Ganju turned together to see a pair of what Jaune could only assume were Soul Reapers staring at them. One was bald and was holding his sheathed sword over his left shoulder, the other had chin length black hair and an odd peacock like pair of hairs coming out of his right eye and eyebrow. The bald one had a menacing grin on his face. "Can you believe this? First we skip out on boring guard duty, and then these three fall right into our hands!"

Jaune sighed to himself. _I hope Yang is having an easier time here than I am._


	2. Scattered

**AN: Finally! Sorry, but this one's going to have larger gaps between chapters than the first one did. This quarter is looking... difficult to say the least. Anyways, I'll be working on this whenever I have free time, so don't worry, I won't forget about it. I've also been rewatching the arc of** ** _Bleach_** **the story is in right now, so I just need more time than usual to get everything right, and I hope that I have so far.**

 **Side note, I'm glad Something Witty finally got Episode 11 back up. What a great season finale!**

 **Now, for CH1 responses.**

 **To ssjzohan: Well, first Jaune has got to start from almost scratch. He was trained by a Dark Keyblade Wielder after all; I doubt that the concepts carry over one-to-one. But he's going to get stronger fast, given he's got a Keyblade in this story and is going to be going up against people like Aizen.**

 **To HelpSomeone: Thanks! Don't worry, Sora and Ruby are still definitely going to show up in this story. They're having their vacation, looking around and keeping an eye on everything. They'll pop up more once Jaune meets the Cloak for the first time.**

 **To G3r1k: I'm glad you like my world choices! Unfortunately, Fairy Tail isn't going to factor in too much. It was more just to have fun and just mention there are more worlds out there they haven't visited.**

 **To Mr. X: I can understand why the Jaune-Yang team seems weird. The idea behind it was that Jaune is wallowing, and Yang has at least some experience with doing that. Also, her boisterous attitude compared to Ren and lack of 'respect' compared to Nora would be fun to play off of Jaune. I almost put Sora as part of the group, too, but I didn't want too many Keyblade Wielders in the main group. Sora at this point is basically god-tier, so putting him next to Jaune would raise the question 'why isn't he doing this himself' rather than 'how will Jaune get stronger.' Sora's going to have an important part, especially after Jaune meets the Cloak.**

 **To Aoi Hyoudou: I get that Jaune-Yang doesn't seem like the immediately obvious choice. I just thought she'd be the most fun to play off of Jaune, and the two of them had the most character growth aside from Sora and Ruby in the last story without their arcs feeling complete to me. As for Sora, he's going to play a big role, even if he's not a main character per se. I wanted Jaune and Yang, who as we see are pretty cocky considering they're a Keyblade Wielder and someone who nearly fought a Keyblade Wielder to a standstill, to see that they're not as strong as they think before Sora and Ruby show up to display the power gap.**

 **To cturner971: So this story is, in a way, Jaune's Mark of Mastery exam along the same lines as Sora's in DDD. As for the reunion scene, I'm definitely going to do it! It's probably going to be somewhere after either world 2 or 4. That shouldn't be absurdly far away; each world adventure should take 2-4 chapters.**

 **To Huj: I'm unsure about the Yang-Jaune romance. I've definitely been considering it, but as of right now I'm just going to see if it starts to develop while I write. Pyrrha, however, is gone. That's a big part of the prequel, actually.**

 **To EmD23: I agree with you. I didn't attend to the group's emotions regarding Jaune enough. Using Ruby and Sora as the POV characters made their reactions more weighty, even if the others had known Jaune longer. I guess the way I viewed it was that Sora has a tendency to sweep everyone up in his emotional viewpoint, meaning that the fact he'd experienced this before and seemed sure they'd get Jaune back gave everyone else the same feeling. Still, I'm going to try to do that better in this story, especially since I'm going to focus on a much smaller cast – probably 5 main characters. Also, I'm glad this story has started strong. I agree about the breathing room; I can definitely let a chunk of characters do as they did in the background without too much work. For instance, we won't be seeing much of Orihime, Uryu, or Chad's storylines in the Soul Society arc.**

 _ **Chapter 2: Scattered**_

Yang grinned and waited for the dozens of Soul Reapers around her to try closing in on her. She had been itching for a fight for a while. She hadn't had a really good fight since everything that had happened with Salem, when she'd gone toe to toe with a mind controlled Jaune. And that fight had mostly been trying to wake him up, not beat him down. No, Yang was long overdue a chance to kick some butt. She slammed her fists together impatiently and glared at the surrounding Soul Reapers. "What, I punch one of you in the face and now none of you are brave enough to fight little old me?" She sighed and shook her head. Placing one arm behind her back and said, "How about if I fight you all with one arm behind my back? No? You're still afraid to fight me?"

"We aren't afraid of any human!" one of the Soul Reapers shouted. "We are Soul Reapers of the Eleventh Court Guard Squad!"

"Cute. I'm Yang," she responded, winking and waving at her opponents. Yang threw her arms down to her sides, causing a pair of small, sharp studs to extend just past her knuckles on both hands. She took a step forward, then another, then another until she was sprinting at the wall of black clad swordsmen. "Of Team RWBY!" She leaped into the air, both hands raised above her head. Flames erupted from within her palms, growing until they covered her arms from the fist all the way down. Her bracers were glowing red hot as she slammed into the wall of enemies, causing a wave of Soul Reapers to be thrown away from where she had landed.

Yang's head snapped backwards to avoid a clumsy stab, the blade hissing just past her ear. She raised her robotic hand and grabbed the sword before it could damage even a single hair on her head, then surged to her feet and delivered a powerful kick to that Soul Reaper's chest. He was thrown away, quickly replaced by another. Yang had already moved on, however, slapping one sword away before ducking under another. She lashed out with and uppercut that stunned a rather large opponent and followed it up by launching one of the Firas in her fists at the dazed Soul Reaper's head. The Reaper flipped in midair and landed on her face, unconscious.

Yang spun around, using her bracer to block the sword slash that came at her throat. She lashed out to grab onto his arm, then began to spin around. The Soul Reaper cried out in surprise when he was lifted from the ground and suddenly began to be used as a club by the young woman. Yang swept him around her, his feet slamming into the head of a nearby Reaper, then he was brought back around at full speed and into another Reaper. Finally, Yang brought him overhead like a hammer that flattened a third of his comrades.

Yang stepped on his back and grinned wildly. She looked around with her glowing, red eyes at the now stunned and cautious Soul Reapers. "No one wants to dance with me? Come on, we can still be friends, right?" she asked mockingly. The Reapers didn't respond, besides a low, grumbling snarl. Yang's grin turned into a scowl. "Hmph... Well, I guess I can see why you guys are the _Eleventh_ squad."

That very nearly got the response she wanted. "Shut up, human!" one of the Soul Reapers snapped.

She grinned and picked a number. RWBY had four members, so four it was! "Maybe the Fourth squad would actually be fun to fight. You pansies are worthless."

That got _more_ than the response she wanted. An almost palpable hatred ran through the crowd of Soul Reapers that had surrounded her, causing a shadow to come over all of their eyes. Yang blinked nervously and looked around at the faces stunned by pure rage. "Kill her!" The mass of warriors rushed her all at once again, some of their swords flashing and changing shape. A halberd slashed over Yang's head, only missing because someone had gotten in the way of the attacker's arm as it lashed around.

The Blonde Brawler yelped and jumped backwards. _I maybe made a mistake,_ she thought to herself. She shrugged a half second later and raised her fists to battle again. A huge, thick club covered in small, metal points slammed into her side, causing her to stumble and a jolt of pain to run along her spine as her aura took a blow. Yang snarled and used her Semblance to immediately return the favor, lashing out with her foot to snap the club in two. The handle was torn from its wielder's hand by the sudden jolt, flying into the air so Yang could catch it. She spun on her heel and tossed the broken end directly into its user's chest. "That hurt," Yang growled. She raised her fist and tossed another Fira into the crowd.

She turned and raised both arms before the spell could explode, using her bracers to deflect a claymore that had been aimed at decapitating her. The blade _clanged_ when it rebounded off of Ember Celica, then its wielder spun around. The blade missed the Reaper's comrades by only a few inches, and only because the entire group had thrown themselves either to the ground or away from the attack. Yang's eyes widened. "Those are your allies!" she shouted in disbelief as she shot a pair of distracting Blizzard spells at the Claymore wielding Reaper. "You'd risk killing them?"

The Reaper didn't respond, instead simply slapping the attacks to the side and launching himself at the blonde again. Yang snarled and blocked another attack. _What's going on?_ She wondered as the other Soul Reapers began to stand up and shout angrily at her current opponent. "What are you doing, Shinfuzen!?" Yang sidestepped another stab from the claymore and kept her eyes locked on the man's face. His eyes were dull – glazed over with something resembling blind hatred.

Yang was only able to see it for a moment before the other Reapers began to swarm her. From every side she was attacked by the Reapers, their arms wrapping around her and trying to tackle her to the ground. She roared in rage at the mere idea that they'd lay hands on her. "Let me GO!" she screamed, fire bursting out from her hair and sending dozens of Reapers flying into the air away from her. Her hair was glowing even more than before, literal flames rising from her skull. Yang raised her hand as the claymore rushed down at her again, and slapped it to the side. The blade became lodged deep enough in the stone for the Reaper using it to lurch forward and slam his gut into the pommel of the handle. Yang raised her feet above her, placing them at the center of the Reaper's chest, then grinned. "You are just going to be _shocked_ by what comes next." Then she cast a Thunder spell, charging the soles of her boots with yellow electricity, and kicked as hard as she could. The Reaper shrieked in pain, some semblance of 'intelligence' returning to his eyes. The sword buried in the ground flashed and became a katana of average size once again when the Reaper finished his eight foot ascent and descended headfirst back to the stone.

Yang pushed herself to her feet surrounded by groans of pain as the Soul Reapers slipped in and out of consciousness. "Wimps," she muttered as she looked around at them. One of them tried to struggle to his feet, only for her to slam her boot heel into his face. He unconscious with a final hissing groan. Yang smirked at him, then looked up and laced her fingers behind her head while she stared up at the blue sky. She clenched her fists after a couple seconds and threw them down at her side with a huff. "Stupid Vomit Boy! I can't believe I have to spend all my time in a brand new world looking for him! Ugh, what the hell, you couldn't have just let me fly the ship instead of crashing landing like an idiot!?"

Yang sighed and shook her head. "Idiot," she muttered again, then placed her hands in her jacket pockets. "And I bet I've got to go save him, too." Yang began to walk down the street. "This way's as good as any."

Yang did not notice the small, black cat that was perched on the top of a nearby building. Its bronze-golden eyes were locked on her as its tail smoothly flicked back and forth behind it. "Interesting," the cat suddenly muttered to itself. It stood up in a single lithe movement, then bounded after the girl. "Someone else breaking in to the Seireitei on the same day we did? What a coincidence..."

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune glanced between the bald Soul Reaper, Ikkaku, and his odd looking companion, Yumichika. Ikkaku was currently dancing around excitedly, singing about how incredibly lucky he was to have found the three of them. "Who is lucky? I'm so lucky! None so lucky but... ME! That's right I said..."

"Okay, while he's singing like an idiot, let's run," Ganju whispered, putting one hand around Jaune's right shoulder and the other around Ichigo's left.

"What? No!" Ichigo shouted, interrupting the Lucky dance and drawing attention back to the three of them. Jaune glanced at Ichigo and then Ganju in turn, wondering what was going on with the two. "You can run away if you want to, but I'm not going to act like a coward!"

"It's smart, not cowardly!" Ganju retorted. He grabbed onto Ichigo's collar and yanked backwards. "They have too much power for an amateur like you!"

"Let go of me, moron!"

"Excuse me, but are we bothering you?" Jaune looked up to see Ikkaku glaring at the three of them with venom in his eyes. He pointed at the trio standing knee deep in the sand and began to violently gesture, tossing his sword about and thrashing around. "I did my lucky dance and you won't even get out of your sand box to fight me!?"

"Look, there's no reason for us to fight," Jaune cut in. He raised his hands to show he had no weapon. Well, at least no weapon that they could see. "I don't want to have to hurt you."

Ichigo, Ganju, Yumichika, and Ikkaku all traded a glance before breaking out in violent laughter. "I... I... Oh, you?" Yumichika asked. He shook his head, derision evident even with his eyes closed. "Please, at least your ugly friend knows he's worthless!"

"Hey!" Ganju snapped indignantly. "You aren't exactly a looker yourself, weirdo!"

Jaune fumed quietly. Why had they all laughed when he had said he could hurt them if it came down to a fight? They might not have known he was a Keyblade Wielder, but it seemed like a big deal for anyone to make it into this place. Jaune sighed and let his hands fall to his side. "I'm being serious," he said quietly.

"Sure, Blondie," Ikkaku said with a roll of his eyes. "You don't even have a weapon."

"You'd never be able to fight one us _us_ ," Yumichika said with a flip of his hair. "It wouldn't even be a beautiful death if you -" The man frowned and stopped talking. "Where did your ugly friend go?"

Ichigo and Jaune glanced at one another before turning to where Ganju had been standing a moment earlier. Indeed, the man was gone, a trail of sand leading out of the pit and down the street. "Ganju, you..." Ichigo growled, clenching his fists at his side.

"Well, he won't get far," Yumichika said, placing his right hand on his sword's handle and sprinting after the trail of sand.

Jaune shook his head and jumped out of the sand pit, landing in front of the Soul Reaper. The Reaper slid to a stop in front of Jaune's crossed arms and blinked in confusion. "I have never seen anyone so excited to die," he said simply.

Jaune growled. "I told you, I don't want to hurt you. But I will." Jaune held his hand out to his side and summoned up an explosion of golden light. The Kingdom Key appeared suddenly, its golden guard glinting in the sun as he raised it in front of his body. "You're not going to follow him."

"Get out of my way, weakling," Yumichika growled. He drew his sword slowly and held it out in front of him. "Though, I suppose I can kill you first."

"Heh, looks like we both get to have a fight," Ikkaku grinned. He launched himself forward before anyone could react, his blade sliding out of its scabbard like a streak of light. Jaune's eyes widened and he was about to call out for Ichigo to dodge, but the other man had already thrown himself to the side. The katana hit the ground, shattering stone while Ichigo began to pull his huge sword from his back. The cloth wrappings covering the blade unwrapped of their own accord, shrinking down until only a foot or so hung from the handle of the weapon.

"You should really concentrate on your own battle." Jaune turned and raised the Keyblade just in time to block the attack coming his way. The katana glinted as the Reaper shoved Jaune back, forcing the blonde to backpedal clumsily. He grimaced and raised the Kingdom Key to block the next incoming attack, then regained his footing and sidestepped an incoming stab. Jaune brought the Keyblade down on top of the blade, causing it to slam into the ground and initiate a struggle of strength between the two. Jaune grimaced and pushed as hard as he could, knowing that as a Keyblade Wielder he should have the upper hand in this type of fight.

"You're not bad," Jaune's opponent admitted as they struggled vainly against one another. They were locked in place, and Jaune couldn't figure out why. The spells he had learned wouldn't come to his mind, he couldn't remember how to transform his Keyblade, and – he barely wanted to admit – he was not nearly as strong as he had thought he should be. It became much more obvious to Jaune when Yumichika grinned evilly. "Bloom for me, Kujaku!" The blade in the Soul Reaper's hands glowed for a moment as it suddenly changed its form, the blade curving far more until it was almost sickle shaped. Jaune felt the Keyblade rattle when the sickle split into four blades, extending and throwing Jaune backwards. He flipped midair, throwing out his left hand to try and deftly return to his feet. Instead, his fingers soared just a few inches over the ground and he landed flat on his chest. "You're certainly not very good, either."

Jaune pushed himself to his knees and glared at the Soul Reaper that began to slowly advance on him. "Oh, good. That's a good look for facing your death." The Reaper dashed forward, swinging his multibladed sword down at Jaune's body. The Keyblade Wielder threw himself to the side, rolling across the ground and then pushing himself up to his feet. He readied the Keyblade in front of him again and narrowed his eyes. What was going on with him? Why couldn't he fight!?

Jaune shook his head. He couldn't focus on that, he had to figure out a way to beat this guy instead. How, with lowered strength, speed, and – apparently – skill could he manage to win? He took a deep breath and glared at the Reaper. He was cocky, sure of his victory. If Jaune could manage to summon just one spell, just do one surprising thing, he could win! Jaune sighed inwardly... He was doomed.

Ichigo, meanwhile, was engaging in a much more even fight. He was trading blows with Ikkaku, whose weapon had also transformed. His, however, had turned into a three-segmented spear that he was using to its maximum potential by quickly alternating between different styles of battle. Spear, then using the bladed end as a whip, then trying to smack Ichigo around with the base of the handle. Ichigo was bleeding profusely from above his eye, the red covering almost the entire left side of his face. The bandages of his weapon extended up his right arm. Ichigo was managing to hold his own, deflecting whatever blows came his way, and began to advance on his opponent. "You may not be a greenhorn, Ichi, but you don't have what it takes to beat me," Ikkaku stated, his tone painting it as fact.

"Is that so?" Ichigo asked as he spun around Ikkaku's defenses, his blade slashing a shallow cut across the bald Soul Reaper's side. He smirked at Ikkauku and readied his blade again. "Because then how did I do that?"

That was when Jaune saw it. "Both of you, look out!" he shouted. Jaune slapped the next of Yumichika's attacks away and shoved him away with his shoulder. The Reaper stumbled backwards, giving Jaune enough time to run forward and slide to a stop behind Ikkaku, raising the Keyblade and blocking a huge black blur from impaling the Soul Reaper from behind.

"What!?" Ikkaku snapped, turning around and freezing.

Jaune was struggling against a creature made of shadows, a monster emanating pure evil. Burning yellow eyes glared down at him from beneath a silver, demonic mask. Horns curled out from its forehead and came down parallel with its jawline. A red outline of a heart with stitches crossing it in an 'X' covered similarly plated armor draped from its shoulders. It had legs like baggy pants, and a large sword in its right hand while the other held the scabbard on its hip. The Heartless looked about five and a half feet tall... and dangerous. Very dangerous, if the flames dancing along the edge of the weapon were any indication.

Jaune flicked his wrist and the creature flew away, disappearing in a burst of smoke and reappearing in another a dozen yards later. Jaune narrowed his eyes as portal after portal suddenly appeared in the path and more of the same Heartless materialized suddenly, about a half dozen in total each accompanied by simple Shadows. "These aren't Hollows..." Yumichika muttered. He looked over at Ichigo. "Are these Ryoka with you!?"

"My friend here just saved this crazy baldy!" Ichigo shouted, insulted that anyone would consider him on a team with those monsters. Suddenly, Ichigo's voice became measured and he glared at the creatures. "Besides, I don't take help from sneak attacking monsters."

"They're evil. Really evil," Jaune said, as he glared at the Heartless. The Keyblade in his hands grew lighter, but he could have been imagining that. "Heartless are attracted to Darkness in strong Hearts. They must be after... " Jaune's eyes fell for a moment before he looked up again. "We need to take them out before they hurt anyone."

"Lucky me, more Ryoka to fight!" Ikkaku shouted, an evil grin coming to his face. He ran past Jaune before the blonde could tell him to watch out for the Heartless' abilities. His spear's segments slammed together as he jumped into the air and twirled it over his head, readying to bring it down in an attack on one of the Samurai looking Heartless. The name _Ronin_ came to mind. The creature hissed and disappeared in another burst of smoke, something which seemed to set the rest of the monsters off.

Jaune prepared for battle as three of the Ronin rushed him, their Shadow companions jumping towards him as well. Well, time for his first battle with real Heartless. How hard could it be?

He got his answer when the three Ronin attacked him with an almost professional level of teamwork. The first blade crashed into the block he raised, forcing him to move into the path of the second enemy's blade. Jaune had turned and deflected this attack, too, but that just left him wide open for an attack from three of the Shadows. Their claws raked at his back and Jaune could somehow feel them raking against his Aura even through the armor. He was shoved forward, right into the flaming sword of the third Ronin. The spell exploded against his face and Jaune was flipping through the air. _Not again..._ he muttered. However, he was able to land on his feet this time. He wobbled from side to side as the Heartless began to surround him again, but it felt like he was getting better at this.

Ichigo blocked blow after blow from the Ronin and Shadows, though he was being driven back with every attack. His weapon was huge, better for annihilating enemies rather than defending against them. He soon found himself back to back with Ikkaku, who had found himself in a similar predicament after charging ahead without thinking. "So, Ichi, why'd your friend save me, you think?"

"It was the right thing to do," Ichigo responded simply. He parried a blow from a Ronin and swept his blade around, slashing through the Heartless and causing it to turn to dust.

"The right..?" Ikkaku groaned. Impaling a Shadow on his weapon's blade he shook his head. "I owe him my life, now! Do you know how bad that is, owing my life to someone greener than you, Greenhorn?!"

"How bad could it be, moron? You're alive." Ichigo jumped forward, Zangetsu's silvery edge flashing as it struck down one, two, three more Heartless in a single blow. He only had to fight with one Ronin now, which seemed to make the creature apprehensive about the battle. It backed off a step.

"Oh, no you don't!" he snapped, jumping after the creature while Ikkaku dealt with the rest of his Heartless. Ichigo swept his blade around, narrowly missing the creature as it disappeared in a flash of Darkness.

Jaune prepared for another onslaught from the Heartless that had surrounded him, meanwhile. He took a deep breath, trying to center himself. He had to stay calm. One of the Heartless jumped at him, and he moved in time to deflect its attack. The Ronin's slash went wide, and Jaune laughed triumphantly. He just had to stay positive, and he'd – His thoughts were thrown off when a blade slammed into his midsection and he doubled over, thankful for his Aura and armor suddenly. He stumbled backwards, feeling frustration rising in his gut. He parried another blow, the move crisp, and turned it into a counterattack without thinking. The Heartless disappeared, replaced by a gleaming Heart that floated away. Jaune turned on his heel and destroyed a Shadow with a quick upward slash, leaping into the air as he did, then brought his Keyblade down and aimed it at the remaining monsters. "RAGH!" Jaune landed and slashed at each of the monsters, blocking their attacks or otherwise annihilating them. He hated them. He hated the Darkness. He hated that he'd brought them back!

Jaune froze as the last Heartless disappeared. He _had_ brought them back... He exited his fighting stance and glanced nervously at the ground. It was his fault the Heartless were here. Not only had they followed his Keyblade to this world, but he'd helped bring them back. He fought against the buckling of his knees and leaned against the wall to remain steady.

"Jaune, that was... pretty good, man." Jaune looked up at Ichigo, who had returned his sword to his back and was blinking away surprise.

"So you were serious about being dangerous then, Blondie?" Ikkaku asked. He grinned and pointed at Jaune. "I'd like a fight with you, sometime!" Then he sighed and shook his head. "But, you saved my life. I don't like being in debt to someone. Ask me any favor, I'll do it."

Jaune shook his head to clear it. "Uh... I don't need anything," he muttered after a moment's consideration.

"Come on, I'm trying to be nice here!" Ikkaku snapped, grabbing hold of Jaune's collar and shaking him violently back and forth. Jaune groaned as his back was repeatedly slammed into the wall. "Just ask me a favor! It's rude not to at this point!"

"Fine! Fine... Ichigo, do you need anything?" Jaune breathed. He placed his hands on Ikkaku's shoulders and shoved him off.

The warrior glanced at the ground, then at the two Soul Reapers staring expectantly at him. "Where's Rukia Kuchiki?"

"The traitor scheduled for execution?" Yumichika asked, his eyes widening in surprise. "That's why you're here?"

"Well, it's why I'm here. Jaune is... uh..?" Ichigo glanced at Jaune. "Why are you here?"

"On accident," Jaune admitted with a sheepish grin. He shook his head. "I crashed our, uh... I kind of crash landed here. Me and my friend, Yang were arguing over who should be in control, and..." He trailed off and grinned nervously again.

"Well, then I guess I'm stuck helping the Greenhorn," Ikkaku grumbled. He turned to Ichigo. "The Kuchiki girl? She's in the Repentance Cells. That big tower over there." He pointed to a large plateau and white towers in the distance. He frowned. "How many of you are here to save her?"

"Other than me? Three and a cat."

Ikkaku and Yumichika stared at Ichigo, then looked at each other before bursting out laughing. "A cat!? Oh, that's great! You're dead meat!"

"Hey, I was going to beat you!" Ichigo shouted angrily.

"Sure you were, Greenhorn!" Ikkaku shouted before laughing even harder. "And I bet you're the strongest one!"

"And so what if I am!?"

Ikkaku fell to his knees. "Oh, Ha! Oh... The Captain is going to kill these Ryoka!"

Yumichika, who was stifling his laughter slightly, agreed. "Oh, agreed. They'll die the moment they meet him."

"Five and a cat." They stopped laughing and turned to look at Jaune. The blonde Keyblade Wielder took a deep breath and repeated himself. "Yang and I will help you Ichigo... Well, if we find Yang."

Ichigo smiled earnestly at Jaune, gratitude clear on his face. "Thanks."

The Soul Reapers shook their heads. "Then it looks like I won't be getting that fight with you, Blondie. Too bad." Ikkaku motioned with his hand. "Leave, before we change our minds." Then he and Yumichika turned around and began to walk away.

Jaune watched them go for a moment, then turned to Ichigo. "So who is Rukia?" he inquired.

Ichigo turned away from the Reapers and crossed his arms. Jaune waited for an answer. "She changed my life." Jaune looked at the ground. He sure could understand that, so he didn't ask any more questions on the subject. He wasn't going to let anyone else lose someone like that if he could help it.

Jaune looked over to Ichigo. "Then let's go save Rukia."

 _ **S M H S**_

Captain Sosuke Aizen of the Fifth Squad sat within his room, preparing for the next few days. The Head Captain of the Soul Reapers had restricted travel into and out of the Seireitei via most portals, locking off the Shinigami headquarters in a pocket dimension that would prevent the invaders from being able to escape. Unfortunately for Aizen, this meant that it would also make it slightly more difficult to escape. He pulled his glasses away from his brown eyes and placed them on the table in front of him. He ran a hand through his brown hair to get it out of his face and sighed. He would just have to figure it out, he supposed. Keeping the Seireitei under lockdown was one of the few things that Head Captain Yamamoto could do that did not require the approval of the Central 46, the main governing body of the Soul Reapers. In fact, it was also one of the few commands that they could not rescind after the fact. This meant that it was one of the few orders _he_ could not rescind once he was controlling the Central 46.

He stood up and walked around his room. He honestly had not expected Yamamoto to do this, and that infuriated the man. He was always on top of things with his plans, always guessing what was going to happen _exactly_. And yet, he had missed something. The world began to blur slightly, and Aizen narrowed his eyes in self disappointment. The Captain took a deep breath; it would not do to lose control of his power right now, not when his plan was in full swing.

"Looks like you need some help."

Aizen whirled on the source of the voice, preparing to draw his Zanpakuto to fight the newcomer. "Easy, easy!" the intruder said. He raised a pair of black gloved hands beside a similarly colored hood that hid his features. Aizen noted they were nearly the same height. "I'm not here to fight. I've just heard you're an... intelligent guy. I thought we could make a trade."

Aizen glared at the person in the long black coat before letting his blade drift back into its scabbard. He stood up tall and let his natural smile return to his face. "What are you talking about? Wait, I'm guessing you've been talking to Momo. Are you one of her friends from another Division? That girl is so sweet, thinking I'm -"

"Cut the crap." Aizen's smile disappeared, replaced by his cold fury for a half moment. The intruder gestured at Aizen with one hand before crossing them over his chest. "I'm here to make a trade, remember? Information in exchange for me lifting the lock on this world."

"What do you want to know?" Aizen said tersely. If this stranger did not want to mince words, Aizen would accommodate him in that regard. And then kill him when he was no longer of use.

The figure examined Aizen for a moment, cocking its head to the side. "How do I get to another Dimension?" he finally asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Aizen raised an eyebrow. "If you don't know, then you couldn't help me," Aizen said dismissively. "This world is locked in another dim -"

The figure raised one finger expressively. "Oh, I guess I used the wrong word! I meant how to get to another timeline."

At that, Aizen stopped speaking again. That was an... interesting question. "Why?"

"That's not part of the deal, Sosuke."

Aizen's teeth ground together at the insult. "Isn't it?" he asked. The figure laughed and shook his head. Aizen stared at the intruder for another few minutes. "Fine." Aizen turned and walked towards a back room of his office, opening the door and pulling out a single scroll. He then turned and walked back to the other man, who reached for the scroll. Aizen pulled it back and smiled cruelly. "No. After you've helped me."

"Then I don't have a guarantee you won't betray me."

Aizen scoffed. "Nor I you."

The figure glared at him for a moment before holding his hand out to his side. Black and white crackled in his fist, a shower of sparks and smoke that summoned a large, black key to his hand. Aizen's eyes widened. "A Keyblade?"

The hooded figure looked up at Aizen. "... Yes."

Aizen masked his surprise, even if he knew it was too late. "I thought they were a myth," he explained casually, dismissing his surprise with a simple shrug. "And yet you have one..."

"There's others. In fact... one's already here." Aizen raised one eyebrow as the figure continued to speak, saying, "He's making a mess out there, fighting Heartless and Soul Reapers. … I wonder what he wants." The intruder shook his head. "How about this? You give me the information now and I show you my face."

Aizen stopped breathing. He had to admit, the idea suddenly... intrigued him. This figure was a complete unknown, he was – "Stop guiding my Heart," the captain demanded, letting a fraction of his cold power loose.

The figure shrugged. He seemed unaffected by Aizen's sudden exertion, and grunted ambivalently. "Worth a try." He turned and aimed his weapon at the ground a few feet in front of him, then placed both hands on the hilt. A wind began to blow within the building despite the closed walls, forcing the clothes of both the Keyblade Wielder and Aizen; simultaneously, the ground beneath him began to glow with the image of a cat like eye made of light. The wind tore the man's hood from his head, piquing Aizen's curiosity.

A moment later, the Keyblade disappeared. The intruder turned back to Aizen, pulling his hood up as he did. Aizen did get a quick glimpse at the man's features, though it was only enough to give Aizen a general idea of the man's face. "Now, I'll be taking my information," the Keyblade Wielder said.

Aizen clasped the scroll in both hands and smirked. "Prove it worked."

The Keyblade Wielder stared at the scroll for a while, then sighed in exasperation. "Really? We're doing this? Ugh, fine." He raised his left hand, summoning a large portal of Darkness. He moved the hand towards Aizen again, the palm facing upwards expectantly. "Satisfied?"

Aizen glared at the young man for a moment. He could betray the boy, refuse and kill him now... Then again, he may be of use later. Aizen smiled at that. He would be of great use later. "Of course." He handed over the information and watched the Keyblade Wielder begin to enter the portal. Aizen said one more thing before the man disappeared completely, however: "I'll see you again, Keyblade Master."

The man stopped and turned his hood back to Aizen. "... Sooner or later." Then he entered the portal and shut it behind him.

 _ **S M H S**_

"Where the hell are we going, Em? It's not like there's anything for you to steal here," Mercury grumbled as he walked after Emerald for what seemed to be the thousandth hour. She didn't respond. "Come on, Em, you've made me run around in sewers across this entire stupid place all day! What are we doing here?"

Emerald stopped and turned around to glare at her partner. "Merc, don't be stupid," Emerald berated her partner. "First off, there's always something to steal. _Always_. Secondly, it's always good to have an escape route."

"We can't escape."

Emerald glared at Mercury. "Look, if you shut up, I'll give you half of my cut when I finally steal something worthwhile," she growled. She let that hang in the air for a second, then turned and continued walking down the path.

Mercury groaned to himself, but stopped complaining to Emerald. There was no point when she got like this in pointing out inconsistencies. Whatever, the two of them would figure it out eventually. "Fine." Mercury quickened his pace a bit to walk beside her.

"What?" Emerald asked when she noticed him staring at her. She raised the eyebrow on the same side Mercury was standing.

"What 'What?'" Mercury retorted with a smirk.

Emerald rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the path in front of them. "Idiot." She continued walking down the street just a half step in front of him.

"Oh, you l – _want_ me," Mercury said, grinning at his friend.

Em tossed him a sly grin. "L-want?"

"I wanted to say 'like,' but that didn't sound true enough." Mercury shrugged, then grinned evilly and added on, "Babe."

"You're disgusting."

"Yeah, yeah. That's what you s –" Merc stopped talking when he caught sight of a mob of black in front of them. He and Emerald traded glances. "What the hell's going on?"

"No!" Emerald hissed.

"'No' what? What do you think I'm going to do?" Mercury asked innocently.

"Don't go try to figure out what's going on." Emerald narrowed her eyes and demanded, "Don't do it... I can tell you're thinking it – 'Let's go run in there and find out what's going on.'"

Mercury matched her gaze, keeping a completely calm face. He blinked twice, then grinned excitedly. "That's a great idea, Em!" he said with a smirk. He grabbed hold of her wrist and began to sprint towards the mass of Soul Reapers.

"Merc! Merc, no!" she hissed as she was dragged along behind him, constantly trying – and failing – to resist his speed. "Mercury Black, no, you will make our disguises worthless!"

He wasn't listening, however. He was just sprinting along with a goofy grin plastered on his face. "It'll be fun!" he shouted as he barreled through the back layer of Reapers. They flew into the air, blown away by the speed wake that Mercury was trailing. He slid to a stop beside whatever the Reapers were watching, and immediately regretted everything. An arm looped around his neck, quickly followed by someone grabbing onto Emerald. A huge sword placed itself at Merc's neck, and a dagger at Emerald's.

"Ha, now we have hostages! You can't attack or we'll kill your friends!" Someone shouted.

"Guys, I don't know if I'm comfortable with this." Emerald straightened up as that voice came from behind her. She tried to look around, instead only catching sight of an orange haired Soul Reaper with a huge sword threatening to kill Merc and a man in green holding her hostage. "Hostages!?"

Mercury groaned when he recognized the voice. "No..."

The voice said something next: "No..!"

"Blondie?"

"Cinder's lackeys?"

The swords left their throats. "Oh, great, they're not even real Reapers." The orange haired Reaper groaned. He turned to Jaune. "I thought you said you only came here with one friend."

"We're not his friends!"

"They're not my friends!"

"That clears... nothing up," the man in green muttered.

"Ahem." The fake Reaper, the man in green, Jaune, Emerald, and Mercury all turned towards the source of the noise. The Soul Reapers had all recovered and were glaring at the five surrounded warriors.

"This is... a lot of guys," Mercury muttered when the Reapers began to slowly advance on them.

"Like... a lot," Jaune agreed.

Emerald sighed at that moment and did something against her better judgment. She raised her right hand beside her head... and snapped her fingers. The Reapers advancing on them stopped moving, lost in some sort of unseen fantasy for a moment. She turned around to the stunned faces of Blondie and his friends. "Nice move, Em," Mercury complimented. His voice turned arrogant. "But we could've taken them."

"You were as worried as me!" Blondie shouted, waving the bright gold and silver weapon in his right hand around.

"Ugh, just shut up and follow me," Emerald groaned. She turned and looked around. "Where are... Oh!" She ran through the crowd of Reapers, expecting everyone to follow suit. They did after trading a glance of confusion.

"Where are we running?" the not-Reaper asked, sprinting for a moment to catch up.

"Yeah, where are _we_ going?" Mercury echoed.

"I – Merc! We've been mapping this place out all day!" she yelled in exasperated disappointment. "Come on, you didn't remember any of it!?"

"I meant why are Blondie, Strawberry, and Moron with us?" Mercury clarified angrily.

"But I don't have Strawberry – Hey!" the guy in green snapped.

"Just... Just follow me," Emerald sighed before hooking a right into a building. She tore one of the panels in the floor off and pointed into the newly opened alcove. "Go."

Jaune looked at her distrustfully. Why were they helping Jaune and his friends? He was their enemy! He had almost killed Cinder and then them under orders from Salem, and these two had helped with everything at Beacon and beyond. They were criminals to the core more accustomed to vengeance than forgiveness! "Blondie, those Reapers are going to be following us soon. I'm not holding the illusion anymore. Move." Jaune looked into her eyes, seeing a combination of angry annoyance and... something else. Compassion? He hesitated half a moment before he nodded and jumped in, Ichigo and Ganju on his heels. Emerald and Mercury dove in not a moment later, pulling the panel back into place above them.

"Is this a sewer!?" Ganju shouted in surprise.

"Don't mind him," Ichigo grunted. He walked over to Emerald and Mercury, holding out his hand. "I'm Ichigo. He's Ganju. Nice to meet some friends of Jaune's!" He grinned at the two.

"Emerald," the girl said. She shook his hand and pointed with her other hand's thumb at Mercury. "And don't worry about your idiot. Mercury here is just as bad." She let go of his hand. "Again, though, we aren't Blondie's friends." Emerald began to remove the Soul Reaper shihakusho from over her regular clothing.

"But you saved us," Ichigo said, confused.

"Yeah, why did you?" Jaune asked, stepping forward. He was watching Emerald worriedly, hoping that this didn't end badly. Emerald looked over at him and let her eyes fall on the weapon in his right hand. It was Keyboy's weapon.

"Is Keyboy alright?" she asked, gesturing at the weapon.

"Sora? He's fine. Why?" Jaune asked. He shook his head. "And answer my question!"

"You didn't kill Cinder. It's a thank you," Emerald growled. Jaune's eyes widened in surprise and he glanced between her and Mercury. That was true; Pyrrha had stopped him from murdering Cinder for vengeance.

"Hey, Man, I don't really care," the silver haired assassin said. He tore off the Soul Reaper uniform that rested over his own clothes. "I think we should've left you behind."

Jaune glanced between the two before shaking his head in disappointment. "Is this what you've been up to? Running from world to world?"

"Until we got here," Mercury admitted simply. He shrugged. "We're locked in here."

"Jumping from world to world?" Ichigo asked in confusion. Jaune grimaced and started to panic.

"You idiot, he means the human world and Soul Society. They must be souls of some kind." Jaune breathed a sigh of relief. Ganju, saving the day.

"What are they talking about?" Emerald asked, her voice annoyed.

Jaune glanced over at Ichigo and Ganju, who were now arguing about... something. "Just... Just roll with it." He returned his attention to the fugitive criminals. "And what do you mean we're locked in here?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, Blondie," Mercury cut in. He scoffed at Jaune and shook his head. "We can't open portals to get out of here."

"You can't?" Jaune asked. He glanced down at the weapon in his hand and it clicked. He scoffed and glared at the two fugitives. "Oh, I get it. You saved me so I could unlock whatever barrier is keeping you here. Of course it wasn't out of the kindness of your hearts."

"Smart, Em!" Mercury complimented his partner.

"I didn't – ugh! Morons... Well, you brought it up, so can you?" Emerald asked with a sigh.

The Keyblade Wielder hefted the weapon over his shoulder. He bit the inside of his cheek before nodding. "I'll trade you."

Mercury and Emerald looked at each other nervously. "You'll... trade us?" Emerald asked after a couple moments. She crossed her arms and glared at him inquisitively. "And just what could we have that you could possibly want?" Emerald _really_ hoped that Jaune's eyes weren't going to dart down to the Genie's Lamp hanging from her waist. She'd rather use a wish getting out of this than lose the rest to Blondie.

"My friends here need help," Jaune said, turning and gesturing at Ichigo with his head. He looked back at Emerald and Mercury and let a disarming grin come to his features. He'd seen them with Sora and Ruby back when Salem had been controlling him, so he knew they were a big part of helping to save him. They deserved a chance. "And you two seem to know your way around here better than we do."

Emerald studied the blonde's goofy, good natured smile. It was a far cry from how he had looked the last time she had seen him in control of himself. He'd been fighting Cinder one moment, blind fury and endless rage filling his eyes. He had wanted to kill Cinder and make her suffer for killing Cereal Box. Then a moment later he'd been broken and ready to cry on the ground. This person standing in front of her was different. "Fine. What do you need?" Emerald asked, much to Mercury's chagrin.

"Wait, really? You'll help us find Rukia?" Ichigo asked, cutting off his argument with Ganju by shoving the man away by his face. "Really?"

"Rukia? Oh, no, we're not helping you find your girlfriend," Mercury stated, trying to 'put his foot down' at helping solve people's relationship issues.

Ichigo turned red and shook his head violently. "Wh- I – she's -"

"Just tell us how to get to the big, tall, white tower at the center of this place," Jaune said, dismissing the Keyblade from his hand. "And once we save Rukia, I'll help you get out of here."

Emerald looked over at Mercury. "No..." Mercury cautioned.

Emerald blinked once, keeping her face mockingly calm. "'No' what?" she asked. She placed her hands on her hips and stared at Merc. "What do you think I'm going to do?"

"We shouldn't do this! We should lay low, not risk our lives to get killed by a bunch of crazy swordsmen and Heartless that are going to chase them!" Mercury stated. He jabbed his index finger at Jaune, Ichigo, and Ganju. "Help them? _Help them!?_ "

Emerald blinked once, then grinned evilly. She placed her hand on her partner's shoulder and said through gritted teeth, "Well, as a moron once said... Good idea, Merc!" She turned back to Jaune and nodded. "You've got yourself a deal, Blondie."

 _ **S M H S**_

"I can't believe this. I've been wandering for hours and I _still_ haven't found Vomit Boy! GAH!" Yang shouted in exasperation as she neared a large white tower at the center of the city in which she had arrived. Fog was rolling in from every direction, obscuring everything around her. She ran her robotic prosthetic through her hair and groaned angrily. "Godammit, Jaune, I told Sora and Ruby I'd keep you safe and now you're running around getting in trouble without me... What would Pyrrha say if I let you get your face punched in by someone stronger than you?"

Yang sighed and stopped walking. "What the hell am I going to do?" she asked the fog. She looked around for a moment, hoping someone would respond, then sighed and continued to walk.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura." Yang looked over her shoulder, catching sight of a massive cloud of what looked like pink flower petals rushing towards her. She readied her gauntlets with a grin and summoned a Fira spell into her left fist. She lashed out with that hand and the pink swirling towards her exploded away in a burst of energy.

Yang stood up to full height and stared out into the fog towards where the attack had come from. "Wow, looks like someone is trying to steal my sister's style," she snapped at her unseen attacker. "Come on out." Another swarm of pink petals flew out of the fog, these ones moving faster than the first attack. Yang threw herself to the side just in time, letting the petals slam into the ground where she had been standing a moment earlier. She rolled to her feet and looked at where she'd been standing. The ground was destroyed, with flower petals floating all around. She caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye and jumped backwards, avoiding the next attack and rolling to her feet, adopting a ready position. "Okay, I'm getting really tired of this! Come on out!"

There was no answer, simply another stream of what was obviously not flower petals. Yang snarled and cracked the knuckles in her flesh and bone hand. "Okay then," she hissed. She raised her hand. "Gather." A ball of black and golden energy gathered in Yang's palm and she slowly clenched her fist around the spell. The energy, in turn, began to surround her hand up to the end of her weapon. Yang took a half step towards the petals, then threw her fist forward. The spell flew from her fist, launching forward until it collided with the top of the flower petal vortex. The energy exploded into a large sphere of magnetic energy, drawing in all of the flower petals into a vortex. Yang raised her other fist, bathing it in flames, and fired off another spell. The petals exploded away from her, flying away and into the fog once more.

"That was interesting." Yang turned to her left and watched as the source of the voice walked towards her. At first, it was just a silhouette, just above average height, thin, and dressed in a Soul Reaper uniform that managed to hide the entire length of his arms. Yang could barely make out a long white vest that hung over his shoulders when he got closer, then a scarf coiled around his throat. Finally, when she got close enough, she could see him completely. He had odd headpieces that kept his hair in sharp bangs on the left side of his face and out of his face on the right. His lavender-gray eyes looked cold and uncaring, though some sort of pain was barely visible behind them. His lips were curled downward in a sad scowl. "I cannot sense any spiritual pressure coming from you, yet you are fast enough to dodge Senbonzakura's petals and powerful enough to stop them in their tracks." He cocked his head to the side and glared at Yang. "You are one of the Ryoka."

"I keep hearing that word. I keep not knowing what it is," Yang responded. She slammed her fists together and grinned wildly at her new opponent. "For me, it just means I get to kick some butt."

"Vulgar. You are human, then." He blinked once, for the first time since he had arrived.

Yang laughed in confusion. "Uh, what else would I be?" she asked, shooting the tall, thin man a smile. She frowned when he didn't respond. "You know, when someone asks you a question, you're supposed to answer. It's only polite."

The man didn't respond, instead just locking his gaze on Yang and summoning the storm of petals towards her again, spiraling down from above. She glanced up just in time to notice them coming and raised her arms above her head and hoping that her Aura would be able to take the brunt of the blow. The pink petals rushed around her, tiny blades glancing off of the energy field surrounding her skin and clothes, every attack taking a small albeit noticeable chunk out of her Aura reserves.

The newcomer watched the attack land with disinterest. When the assault ended, he turned and began to walk away from his dead opponent. He thought, at least.

"Nice try." He turned around to see the girl running at him, unhurt visibly by his attack. The Reaper's eyes widened slightly in surprise; he had not been expecting her to shrug off his attack so easily. He summoned the petals back to form a wall between them, an impenetrable barrier she through which she could not attack him. Yang smirked and leaped into the air. She taunted, "Nice try, Mr. Flowery Disposition, but it isn't going to be that easy!" She landed a two handed blow on the wall, causing a massive explosion of force.

The wall cracked under the pressure, the force causing the petals to fly away from each other and the Reaper to be thrown back. He flipped while still midair and landed on his feet, though he seemed slightly rattled by what had happened. "You get it? Flowery Disposition? Because of the flowers and how angry looking you are?" she asked when he didn't chuckle or even grimace at her pun. "Hey, that was a good one."

"I had not expected a human to be so strong." The man stood up to his full height, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The calm slowly began returning to his features. He opened his eyes a moment later and the petals flew back to his now outstretched hand, forming a sword blade. He turned the blade towards the ground in front of him. "Before I defeat you, why are you here?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "You? Beat me? Funny. Real funny, Chuckles," she mocked. She shrugged and decided to humor him regardless. "I'm Yang Xiao Long. I crashed here on accident; now I'm just looking for my idiot friend so we can leave." She grinned and waved her fingers at the Reaper. "And who are you, tall, pale, and serious?"

The figure glared at her for a moment, considering what to say in response. "You are worth more of my time than I had suspected," he said, his voice arrogant but still hinting that he had _earned_ that arrogance. "I am Captain Kuchiki of Squad Six, and I am the Soul Reaper who killed you." His blade fell from his hand. "Bankai."

Yang raised an eyebrow in confusion as his blade drifted towards the ground. Why would he possibly drop his weapon? It left him defenseless, so why – She stopped thinking when the sword drifted into the ground, disappearing completely. The world darkened around her, the fog replaced with a pitch black dome. Swords the size of men began to grow from the ground, pillars of steel forming a pathway at the center of which stood Captain Kuchiki. Yang raised her arms defensively, knowing what was coming next. She had one chance. "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi," Kuchiki stated, and the swords exploded into a trillion petals each.

"Reflect!" Yang snapped under her breath, gathering the magic in her gut and forcing it outward. The blades consumed all vision of her, hiding from the Reaper the magical shield as it appeared. The blades bounced off of the spell, keeping Yang alive. But she knew it wouldn't hold; she was a tank, so she knew how long shields could hold out. Between the beating she had taken earlier, and the one she was inevitably going to take when the Reflect went down, she knew she'd be lucky if she survived.

As if the event was brought into being by her thoughts, the blades clattering against the Reflect wall finally shattered it. Pink petals slammed into Yang, sending her flying. She shut her eyes and focused on keeping her Aura up, on keeping herself alive. It wasn't enough, as blades soon slammed into her and she hit the ground unconscious.

The black dome slowly disappeared, and the blade of Captain Kuchiki rematerialized in his hand. "You held on much longer than I had expected." He sheathed his weapon, then turned and walked away without casting another glance at Yang's body.

Luckily for her, someone else was there to cast a glance. "I suppose it was a good thing that I've been keeping an eye on you. Not many Soul Reapers can even stand up to Byakuya for as long as you did." A small black cat bounded over and sat down beside the unconscious, barely bleeding Yang. "And even fewer would be in such good shape afterwards. Your clothes are not even damaged!" The cat leaned down and sniffed Yang's forehead. "Hm... but you still require some time to regain your energy."

The cat stood up and stretched its back, mewling slightly. "Well then, better get moving." A bright blue light began to emanate from the cat, and a moment later both she and Yang were gone.


	3. Eleven and Six

**AN: Howdy! Sorry it's been a while, but the last three weeks have been tests and projects and more tests. It's been a lot recently.**

 **Anyways, I hope that this chapter is fun. I enjoyed writing the fights, but next chapter's are going to be great. Chapter 4 will be the final chapter of this Bleach arc and will end with the jump to the next world.**

 **Anyhoo, responses:**

 **To ssjzohan: Thanks. I hope the hype continues!**

 **To goddragonking: I'm glad the first two chapters were great; I'll try to update as quickly as I can, but you might just have to bear with me for a while.**

 **To cturner971: I'm happy to answer any questions I can! I hope this chapter was worth the wait; sorry it was so long!**

 **To Guest: I'm happy to have your attention and I can't wait to show you guys everything I have in store. Hopefully it's a surprising, or at least entertaining, journey.**

 **To G3r1k: I thought at first Kuchiki would steam roll Yang, but with Magic and the things she went through in SMHS, as well as her unique Semblance and durability, she'd be better equipped to fight someone unused to a real challenge than he would expect, even if he is Byakuya. I'm unsure if Yang and Jaune will ever have a fight with Kenpachi, though I am toying around with one idea that might make it happen. I'll see if it comes through.**

 **To jacalman: Thanks for pointing out my little continuity error regarding Jaune's loss of his skills. I'm happy that you think it works out regardless. The trilogy idea is a good one, and I have a possible concept for it wiggling around in the back of my mind. I'm going to try to avoid working on it too much until I'm almost done with this – don't want to work on too many things at once, right?**

 _ **Chapter 3: Eleven and Six**_

Jaune watched Emerald and Mercury as they led Ganju, Ichigo, and him down the pathway towards the Repentance cells. He felt bad admitting it to himself, but he didn't really trust them. Both of them were terrorists. Real, actual, terrorists that had nearly brought the entirety of Remnant's world order crumbling down into Dust. He could forgive them for that in light of how they had helped Sora, Ruby, and the others get to Salem and save his life, as well as the World. However, he wouldn't forget any time soon. He was going to keep an eye out to make sure they didn't stab him in the back trying to escape.

"What are you thinking about, Jaune?" Ichigo asked, causing the warrior to turn in surprise as his train of thought was suddenly broken.

The blonde Keyblade Wielder looked ahead again to focus on Emerald and Mercury. "Um... I'm wondering if Yang's okay," he said, not completely lying. The question had been present in the back of his head ever since landing in this weird world, even if he hadn't voiced it too often.

"You shouldn't worry about that," Ichigo stated simply. His voice had a quiet edge to it, as if he truly and fully believed what he was saying. It cut off any thoughts of disagreeing that Jaune had in his head. "Remember, I've got friends out there, too. They're all fighting by themselves against Soul Reapers, and out of us I'm probably the strongest out of any of us. But that doesn't matter. I've got to trust that they can do it, because they're my friends. They deserve that much."

"Yang was a better fighter than me," Jaune admitted quietly. He looked down at the Keyblade in his hand, the golden guard glittering in the bright sunlight streaming down from above. "Especially now that... I can't remember how to do anything."

Ichigo frowned in confusion. "Hey, what is that supposed to mean? You can't remember how to fight?"

"It means -" He was cut off by Ichigo grabbing his shoulders and tearing him backwards. Jaune gruned in surprise when a mass of black and white cloth slammed into the ground where he had been standing a moment before, the slight ringing of bells accompanying the stone raining down around them. Jaune hit the ground on his back, then watched the huge mass of muscle and sword begin to slowly stand up, an aura of shadow exploding into being around it.

Jaune hissed in pain as a sudden pressure began to weigh on him, forcing every muscle in his body stiff and incapable of movement. He shoved himself to his feet with great effort. He tried to take a step forward, but found himself hitting a wall with every attempt. On the other side of the newcomer, Mercury, Emerald, and Ganju were frozen by the invisible force; Ganju looked like he was about to bleed out of his ears. Jaune gritted his teeth when he saw in the corner of his vision Ichigo struggling the same way. Jaune to had save them all! He snarled and pushed his foot forward, ignoring the flare up of pain that came with movement. He wouldn't give in. The Kingdom Key appeared in Jaune's hand and flashed with a bright light, filling the area.

Everyone gasped, suddenly realizing they hadn't been breathing. Jaune stumbled and managed to steady himself by slamming the tip of the Keyblade against the stone. He took a few deep breaths and looked past the Captain who had yet to move, the monster's gaze imply locked on the Keyblade in Jaune's hand. The others were slowly recovering from the effects of this... monster's mere presence.

"Emerald, Mercury, take Ganju to Rukia. Now!" Ichigo snapped, standing straight up like he hadn't been affected at all, though Jaune could see the same bravado he had used back at Beacon when he was scared. Ichigo unsheathed Zangetsu and readied it defensively.

Jaune stood on shaky legs and shouted in agreement, "The Keyblade did something, but I don't know how long it's going to last! Go!"

"Don't have to tell us twice," Mercury said, standing up straight. Before Ganju or Emerald could say anything, he grabbed onto their arms and turned on his heel, dragging them behind him at tremendous speeds.

"Hey, wait! That's a Captain! Ichigo and Jaune don't stand a chance!" Ganju shouted, the noise drifting back to the two warriors. In fact, it was the last thing they heard from those three before they rounded a corner and disappeared completely.

"Well, that makes me confident," Jaune muttered when the Captain and his dark aura turned towards them.

The man was tall, huge even, and extremely well built. A long, thin scar traced down the left side of his face, over his eye and the corner of his mouth. His hair was sticking out in every direction in long spikes, each tipped with a small bell. His right eye was covered by an eyepatch, which seemed odd given that his left eye was the one that had a scar across it. His grin was manic, bloodthirsty and almost demonic. This was only accented by the huge aura of darkness that had enveloped him, clouds and tendrils drifting off of his skin. He had a blade in his right hand, a chipped and sharp blade that looked like it had survived many cruel battles. A black necklace was tight around his throat, accenting the muscles rippling in his neck. "Heh heh heh heh heh..." he laughed, the noise more animalistic than anything else.

Jaune felt a pit of fear rising in his gut. "Ichigo, I think we should make a tactical retreat," he said simply. He shivered. "This guy feels..."

"I know," Ichigo said. He redoubled his grip on Zangetsu. "But we can fight or run. Way I see it, if we run he'll either chase us or go after the others. Are you stronger than Mercury and Emerald?"

Jaune glared at the Captain still staring patiently at them. "Unfortunately," he admitted.

"Then we'd have to just fight him again later. I'd rather get it out of the way before we get injured in other fights," Ichigo explained resolutely.

"I know," Jaune said sadly. He had been thinking the same thing. The blonde warrior kept his gaze locked on the Soul Reaper. "Um... who are you!?"

There was no answer. The man simply disappeared, leaving behind the quiet jingling of bells. Jaune felt an explosion of darkness coming from his right and instinctively raised the Kingdom Key. The blow slammed into his weapon with enough force to shatter a bus, and Jaune was thrown into Ichigo. The two couldn't even shout out in pain as they were thrown through wall after wall of stone, leaving behind huge gaps where they had crashed.

Jaune grunted and pushed himself off of Ichigo. "Okay, 'tactical retreat' you said? That sounds a lot better now," Ichigo agreed. He pushed himself up to his feet and spat out a globule of blood. "Where is he?"

Jaune looked around, focusing on listening for the Reaper's arrival. Jaune may not have looked it, but he was pretty smart when it came to fighting. When it came to people, women, books, and being cool? Not so much, but somehow he was smart about fighting. He heard the quiet jingling of bells coming from his right. "Ichigo, get down!" The two threw themselves to the ground, rolling beneath a blow from the Captain's blade that moved fast enough to send a blade of wind down the pathway, carving into the walls a deep, jagged line. Jaune made it up to his feet before the Captain could turn and attack again, slamming the Keyblade into the man's side.

It did nothing. The figure turned and glared down at Jaune, the manic grin widening. "Got some fight in there..." he said, the dark aura fading away for a moment. This didn't cause anything resembling normal consciousness to appear in the giant's eyes, though he did look less evil and more wild. It disappeared when the dark aura exploded from his shoulders, reborn, and Jaune was thrown backwards. He skidded across the ground for a moment, tumbling until he could get up to his feet. He raised the Keyblade and glared worriedly at the Captain now standing between him and Ichigo.

"Bells!" Jaune realized when the Captain disappeared again, jingling following him. Jaune raised his weapon, waiting for the Reaper to attack, but was surprised when he attacked Ichigo instead. Ichigo's cleaver swept upward, blocking the Captain's blade. The Captain turned with the block and his blade glinted in the light.. "NO!" Ichigo moved just in time to take the brunt of his attack with his own blade, though it still sent him sliding backwards.

"I'll take you on all by myself!" Ichigo snapped, rushing the Captain. Their blades clashed while Jaune ran in from behind, trying to find an opening without risking getting in the way of Ichigo's attacks or vice versa. The Captain jumped backwards, flipping over Jaune and slashing down. Jaune was thrown forward by the blow, his aura dripping dangerously low when he hit Ichigo.

Ichigo caught Jaune and helped him back up to his feet. "Are you o-"

"Ichigo, look out!" The Captain had basically warped behind Ichigo, his blade flying upward and glinting evilly. Ichigo gasped in pain and fell to his knees and hands, blood leaking from his back. The Captain slowly raised his weapon above his head, the Dark aura around him flaring up dangerously. Jaune snarled, feeling a fire rise up in his gut, and leaped forwards, moving fast enough that he managed to slam his shoulder into the center of the Captain's abdomen. The bells jingled as he stumbled backwards, his attack going wide and burying his blade in the stone beside Ichigo. " _Leave him alone!_ "

The Captain pulled his sword out with minimal effort, taking a half step backwards to gain space for an attack. The Keyblade Wielder blocked the blow, redirecting the force upward with the Kingdom Key, then slashed down across the Captain's chest. He looked up to see what damage he had dealt, only to be lifted up above the Captain's head. He gasped and clutched uselessly with his free hand at the fist curling around his throat. The Captain's manic grin widened for a moment before he turned and slammed Jaune down directly on top of Ichigo. The two younger warriors shouted in pain with the collision. "What the heck? Was your mother a train?" Jaune asked, voice hollow.

"Dammit... can't die here..." Ichigo groaned. He tried weakly to push himself up, though Jaune's weight atop him as well as blood rushing from his wound did nothing to help. His head slammed against the stone floor, hard. "Damn... it..."

Jaune looked up at the Captain's sword raised above them. Then it flew down at them, glinting with murder. Jaune tried to raise the Keyblade above him, but the world disappeared in a bright flash of white Light before he could manage to save both him and Ichigo from impending death. His last thoughts were of his family, most of whom had not seen him since before the Fall of Beacon. He had promised his dad he'd come back. _Sorry, Dad. I tried._

Jaune blinked in surprise when he found he wasn't dead. "Um... where am I?" he asked simply, looking around in confusion. He looked to his left, where a blue and white sky stretched on for miles. A cliff? He looked to his right and saw – Jaune yelped and fell down, clutching vainly at the side of the building he was _somehow_ standing on. "I survive that crazy Reaper Captain just to fall off of a building?!" He shut his eyes and groaned. After a few moments, however, a gut feeling told him to stop freaking out. With the Keyblade, he would probably survive any fall. He stood up and scratched his cheek. Somehow, gravity had rooted him to the building like it was the ground. He repeated, "Where am I?"

"Jaune? How are you here?" Jaune whirled around, catching sight of Ichigo and another man. He wasn't injured now, the wound across his chest gone.

Jaune grinned and ran towards him, ignoring the tall man in a black and red ethereal cloak standing beside Ichigo. The Keyblade Wielder skidded to a stop in front of the Substitute Soul Reaper. "You're okay, too! That Captain... wait, are we dead? Is this hell? No, why would you be in hell..?"

"Master, this is unimportant," the other man said, suddenly drawing both Ichigo and Jaune's attention. The man was tall – maybe as tall as the Captain that Jaune and Ichigo had been fighting earlier. He had ragged, dark hair that partially obscured his weary, stubble covered face and the brown sunglasses over his eyes. He had a long cloak of black that looked as if it swallowed all light that touched it save for the red fire that burned within. "I know how your ally entered your Inner World, but it does not matter. You must be tested."

Jaune frowned and glared at the man. "Why do you need to test Ichigo... Um... Mister..."

"Oh, right, I've never had to introduce him to anyone before. This is Old Man Zangetsu," Ichigo explained, gesturing with one hand at the tall man.

"Zang – Your sword?" Jaune asked. He looked up at the man's calm glare, then cast a glance around them. "So, this must be Ichigo's Heart."

The man did not answer, instead turning to Ichigo. A sword materialized in his hand and he tossed it haphazardly at the Reaper so that the blade spun around and threatened to cut someone in half. The orange haired young man yelped and tried to catch the sword, hand nearly slashing against the blade while it bounced in and out of his grasp due to his sudden fear and surprise at the blade's appearance. Jaune watched with an eyebrow raised when Ichigo finally managed to grab hold of the sword. "What the hell, Old Man? You shouldn't throw swords at people!"

Zangetsu just glared at Ichigo before growling, "This is your sword."

Jaune glanced between the two. "I thought you were his sword," the Keyblade Wielder muttered in confusion.

Zangetsu stopped and turned to glare at Jaune. Unabated hatred was visible behind his sunglasses and Jaune felt like something was burning a hole in his forehead. "You are an invader here, Key Knight. Do not interfere in our affairs." Zangetsu turned next to Ichigo. "That sword will suffice for one such as you – a weak Reaper who does not understand what it is to wield his Zanpakuto. A child."

Jaune and Ichigo both turned as the sound of manic laughter suddenly appeared, shooting past them and landing with its back to them. The figure was the same height as Ichigo, and he had the cloth of Ichigo's massive cleaver in his right hand, spinning it around to create a massive circular blade of death. The figure turned around, and they saw that the weapon wasn't where the similarities to Ichigo ended. He looked almost exactly like the young man, though everything about him was inverted. His skin and hair were a pale, almost bone white. His teeth were a deep black, the same as the sclera of his eyes. He had evil, orange irises. He was dressed in a similarly inverted outfit. "Hi there, Partner! And... Blondie. It's good to see you both!" It said in Ichigo's voice, though there was a manic tone that made him sound … wrong. Then the creature leaped towards them, suddenly stopping the circular movement of the blade and sending it flying towards Jaune and Ichigo. They threw themselves in opposite directions, both rolling across the side of the building and to their feet.

Jaune summoned the Keyblade as his front foot hit the ground. He glared up at the creature soaring through the air, swinging the sword around in a circle again. It landed just beside Ichigo and began to mercilessly assault him, using the oversized blade in its hands to the fullest extent. Ichigo could barely keep up or manage to block with the tiny blade clutched in his hands. The second Ichigo spun around and delivered a powerful two handed blow, sending Ichigo flying across the surface of the building and nearly off the edge. Jaune snarled and jumped up to go help, only to be slapped away by Zangetsu. "You cannot interfere, Key Knight. This is Ichigo's test to see if he is worthy to wield me! He must take me back with his own two hands or die trying!" the old man snapped as Jaune pushed himself back up to his feet.

Jaune shut his eyes tight, thinking back to when Salem had trapped him in his own Heart. He had been chained in his own Darkness, the monster threatening to devour him. He wasn't going to let anyone else go through that. "I refuse!" Jaune growled suddenly. His eyes flew open and he sprinted at Zangetsu with Keyblade in a low grip trailing at his side. Jaune slashed upward, trying to bisect the figure. He moved around the attack, leaving nothing but a trail of black and red behind him that the Keyblade moved harmlessly through. Jaune slammed his foot in front of him, stopping his momentum and letting him turn to attack Zangetsu again. "A good friend of mine told me that if you're friends, you never fight alone! So no – Ichigo isn't fighting alone!"

Zangetsu disappeared without a word, causing Jaune's sideways slash to hit nothing but air. From behind the blonde Keyblade Wielder came a voice: "Your foolish nature belies intelligence. I had not expected that, Key Knight." Jaune turned around and raised the Kingdom Key, barely blocking the wave of power that exploded out from Zangetsu. The building beneath Jaune was protected, but the wave spread around him like a wake that shattered the stone, steel, and glass. Black and red energy filled Jaune's vision and slowly began to erode his defense. He held fast, despite the sudden burning sensation running up and down his arms.

Jaune fell to one knee when the wave ended, smoke rising from his shoulders. "That was... that was... Darkness..."

Zangetsu stared down at him dispassionately. "It was power, Dark or Light it matters little. You should know better than most all Hearts contain both." Jaune grimaced angrily at the truth of those words. He better than most?

Jaune forced himself to his feet and glared at the cloaked man. "What's that supposed to mean?"

His only response was four words: "You smell of Darkness fought." Then Zangetsu grabbed him by the throat and tossed him across the tower again. Jaune shut his eyes tight. He had to get to Ichigo and help him, but he couldn't do that with Zangetsu attacking him like this! He hit the side of the skyscraper a few seconds later and bounced across it, coming to a stop on his back. "And you are stronger for it, Key Knight. If you fight the battles of others for them, they will never get stronger!" Jaune opened his eyes and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a quick beam of Darkness coming from Zangetsu's cloak.

He glanced around and caught sight of Ichigo a few dozen feet to his right. With Zangetsu, the three of them formed a triangle, meaning Jaune couldn't hope to get to Ichigo. But he had to help! He had to – Jaune stopped and suddenly thought back to when Sora and Ren had entered his Heart, the memories appearing as if by their own accord. They'd been there, they'd helped him... but they'd let him do it himself. And he had been stronger for it. Jaune glared at Zangetsu for a moment, hoping he was right. Eventually, he dismissed his Keyblade. "Ichigo will win," he said resolutely, finally understanding what all of this was about.

The man in the cloak didn't smile at his victory, though his stance changed from aggressive to calm as he turned to glare at the ongoing battle between Ichigo and White. Jaune watched him nervously, half expecting that the sword spirit would assault him again. Eventually, he let his gaze drift towards Ichigo. "Come on, you can do it..."

Ichigo was being pushed back steadily by his cackling mirror image, barely managing to bring his tiny sword to bear against the wide swings and whip like slashes of the cleaver. Jaune gritted his teeth, worried when another massive blow nearly tossed Ichigo's replacement sword out of his hands, followed by an upward blow that flipped him in place. White spun and slammed his elbow into Ichigo's gut, causing him to tumble across the surface of the skyscraper. White's massive sword came around on its cloth whip again and slammed into the ground where Ichigo's head was, barely missing when the Reaper rolled out of the way. Ichigo watched White carefully, waiting for the next attack. He ducked beneath one whip, then sidestepped another. The third, unfortunately, hit his block and he was forced to one knee.

"Enough already, let's just end this thing!" White said with a shake of his head. He raised his blade behind his shoulder and began to charge Ichigo. "I'm going to show you what it truly means to fight with Zangetsu's full strength, _Partner!_ You couldn't do that even if you died trying!"

"Show me how to fight beside you, Zangetsu! How I can share my strength with you... and you with me. Please let me fight _with_ you now!" Ichigo roared. He stood up and began running towards White in a single motion, his tiny sword trailing behind him.

Jaune blinked once, surprise filling his eyes. Ichigo's weapon had just changed in his grasp, turning once more into the massive meat cleaver White had been holding. White, meanwhile, stumbled over his own feet when he found he was holding the tiny blade Ichigo had been using before. "What!?" White and Jaune shouted.

Ichigo didn't let it slow him down. He simply ran up to White and shattered the negative creature's blade with a single clean swipe.

Then Jaune found himself on his back once more, the Keyblade moving towards the sword rushing at his head from above. He yelped and moved the Keyblade as fast as he could, causing the tip of the Zanpakuto to crash into the side of the Keyblde. A small Reflect wall appeared around the point of contact, sending the giant, Darkness controlled monster of a Reaper stumbling backwards. "Good job. Now get off!" Ichigo grumbled from beneath Jaune. The Keyblade Wielder grinned sheepishly down at his friend, then rolled to the side off of him and prepared to defend the two of them again. Ichigo stood beside him moment later, ready to square off with their opponent as well.

"You feeling stronger after your 'conversation?'" Jaune inquired without moving his eyes from the Captain.

"I think so," Ichigo said, voice sharp and filled with determination.

"Then let's hit him as hard as we can." He held his Keyblade out to his side. Ichigo glanced at the weapon for a moment, then crossed it with Zangetsu. The two weapons flashed brightly for a moment and the two warriors raised their weapons overhead.

The Darkness controlled captain grinned wildly and the aura around his shoulders flared up, consuming the pathway and creating a skull like visage in the air behind him. He laughed like a monster then sprinted towards Ichigo and Jaune, blade glinting as the Dark aura filled it up and elongated its form. He began to bring it up, slicing through the ground and leaving a jagged line through it as it moved up to kill the two of them. The Keyblade and Zangetsu flared up, blades of Light extending. Ichigo and Jaune slashed down as one, their roars mixing with the monster's.

The blades collided with the monster's, causing the Light and the Darkness to explode violently outward. Jaune and Ichigo yelled out in pain and surprise as they were thrown apart from the man, who himself was tossed backwards by the explosion. Ichigo and Jaune soared high into the air, then hard into the ground. Jaune pushed himself up to his feet despite the dizzy feeling in his head. "Ouch," he grumbled.

Ichigo hissed in pain and stood up. He agreed, "Yeah." He scratched the back of his head and glared over at the unconscious Captain. "Good, he's unconscious. I really thought victory would entail getting stabbed and nearly killed."

"Does that happen to you a lot?" Jaune asked, confused.

"Does it _not_ happen to you?" Ichigo retorted, just as confused.

Jaune was about to point out that no, it was not that way for most people, when he was cut off by the sudden, very surprising appearance of a tiny girl with pink hair standing above the unconscious Captain. She was dressed in a tiny version of the usual Soul Reaper's garb, with a loosely fitting band on her left arm. She was clutching a pink handled sword in her left hand by a string connected to its tsuba. "Kenny! You're better!" She waited for a response that didn't come. She frowned then nodded and smiled. "Yep, you just need to sleep it off!"

Jaune and Ichigo flinched when she turned to look at them. "Thanks for helping out Kenny, you two. He's going to be really angry he didn't get to fight you, but you can always play with him later," the little girl said sweetly. She waved at Jaune and Ichigo. "Who are you?"

"The name's Ichigo Kurosaki."

"My name's Jaune," he said, walking forward. He crouched down face to face with her, smiling kindly and speaking clearly to her unpatronizingly. "What are you doing here, Sweetie?"

"I'm here for Kenny, Puppy!" the little girl laughed. "I'm Yachiru."

"P-puppy?" Jaune asked, feeling embarrassed. _Better than Vomit Boy, I guess_.

"Jaune, we have to get going," Ichigo said. He had a feeling this little girl was more dangerous than either of them thought.

"We can't just leave the little girl all alone!" Jaune protested innocently.

"I'm not alone. I told you, I'm with Kenny!" the little girl pouted and pointed at the unconscious Captain. "I keep him safe."

"Yeah... you're right, we should probably help her," Ichigo muttered at that crazy thought. That little, innocent girl hanging around that monster? That sounded like she was bound to get hurt.

"I don't need any help keeping Kenny safe," Yachiru said, hefting his torso above her head. Suddenly slightly more serious she smiled at Ichigo's and Jaune's surprised faces. A little girl was holding that giant of a man up? "Don't worry, he's going to be fine after a short nap. Then you guys can play together again!" She began to drag the man off, humming excitedly to herself.

"Or maybe she's fine," Jaune suggested.

"Yeah. Probably fine," Ichigo agreed.

The girl turned around and smiled from beneath the unconscious man one more time. "Bye bye Puppy! See ya, Ichii!" Then she trotted off at a surprising speed with that beast above her head.

Jaune and Ichigo watched her leave for a moment, then shook their heads. "We've got to get moving," Ichigo said. Jaune nodded, and the two took off in the same direction that Emerald, Mercury, and Ganju had run off before their battle with 'Kenny.'

 _ **S M H S**_

"Are you sure we're going the right direction?" Jaune asked as they continued running down the unremarkable pathway that was impossible to differentiate from any of the others in this place.

"Wh – I mean, yeah! I'm sure," Ichigo said defensively, grumbling as they ran sprinted side by side.

"Calm down, I was just asking," Jaune muttered to the side. He kept his eyes on the road before them, knowing this was better than nothing. The Keyblade came into his view with every step; the two of them had decided it was best one of them have a weapon at the ready in case someone tried to catch them unawares. "So, how'd you meet Rukia?"

"She killed me."

"Oh, that's uh... nice," Jaune muttered. Ichigo had quite the weird group of friends.

"Kind of. The only way to unlock my powers was to stab me directly through the heart with her Zanpakuto," Ichigo explained as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Jaune grinned nervously. It was still seemed a little... excessive. "Yeah, when Pyrrha helped me with my... abilities, all it took was a poem and holding hands."

"Oh, a girlfriend? She waiting for you some -"

"She's dead."

Ichigo felt his words catch in his throat and he began to cough like he was choking on them. "I, uh... I mean – Sorry."

Jaune sighed and continued running, fighting off the old pain. "It's fine, you didn't know. Let's just focus on keeping your girlfriend from ending up the same way."

"That bossy little girl is _not_ my girlfriend," Ichigo growled.

"I'm just messing with you," Jaune grinned. He slid to a stop, catching sight of the long, thin bridge they had just come across. A massive door was open at the other end of the bridge, leading into the white 'Repentance Cells' where the others awaited with this Rukia they were risking everything to save. "Good. Finally got here."

"Rukia!" Ichigo shouted, sprinting past Jaune, waving his hands over his head.

"Even if she isn't your girlfriend, Man, acting like that is going to make everyone think that she is," Jaune muttered under his breath. He shook his head, then began to jog across the bridge after his friend.

Inside the cells, Ganju was facing the door with a sour, pained look on his face. Emerald and Mercury were glancing between him and a young woman at the back of the room nervously. "Oh, good. Blondie and Strawberry are here," Mercury muttered. He shook his head and gestured at the young woman in white at the back of the room. "Maybe you two can get Ice Queen here to cooperate."

"Ice Queen?" the young woman snapped, turning on her heel. Jaune could certainly understand why they had called her Ice Queen. She was almost as pale as Weiss was, and her face was just as haughty and indignant, too. She was a lot shorter than Weiss, though, which said a lot, and her features were sufficiently different that he wouldn't confuse them. Rukia had deep black hair and violet eyes, and the shape of her face was much sharper. Her haughty glare turned scared, then overwhelmingly happy, and finally terrified when she caught sight of Ichigo. She let her gaze fall so her eyes were obscured."Kurosaki!? What are you doing here, I told you not to come! I don't want you here! I said I'd never forgive you if you followed me!"

Ichigo watched her hide her tears with a sad, sympathetic scowl on his face. Jaune remained quiet, knowing this would all be explained eventually. Rukia continued berating her supposed savior. "You... I don't know how you roped all these people into this suicide mission, but look at you! You have a huge scar across your chest and blood stains all over your clothes, and you haven't even faced the worst of it."

"Well you can yell at me about this later," Ichigo said calmly. He gestured at Jaune, Ganju, Emerald, and Mercury. "Like you said, I roped my new friends into this suicide mission, so maybe you could come along for their sake at the very least."

"No! I -"

"Hey! I'm not taking no for an answer!" Ichigo shouted, stunning the short woman. "You can't think for a second I'd just give up on you after coming this far, Rukia! You're my friend, you've done _nothing_ wrong, and I'm not letting _anybody_ hurt you. You got that!? I'm the rescuer here, so just shut up and listen to me!"

"L-listen –?" Rukia snapped, her features becoming indigant again. She got up into Ichigo's face and began to shout. "What did you say? Who do you think you are, ordering me around like this!? A rescuer doesn't get to ignore the rescuee!"

"What kind of rescuee doesn't want to be rescued!?" Ichigo shouted back, his forehead almost touching Rukia's.

"Seriously, for not being together they argue like an old married couple."

"They aren't together?" Emerald asked, somewhat surprised by this revelation.

Jaune shrugged. "You two aren't together?"

"Not for my lack of trying," Mercury said with a smirk.

"Shut up, idiot," Emerald growled.

"This isn't going well," Ganju muttered, moving beside Jaune and watching the two pairs argue at the top of their lungs. "We need to get out of here before any Captains show up."

"Yeah, we fought one," Jaune explained, his face twisted into a grimace. "I'd rather not do that again so soon.

"You fought that one? And you're not dead?" Ganju inquired in confusion. "Without running away?"

"He wasn't really in control of himself," Jaune said. He walked forward. "Guys?" The argument continued. "Guys?" More shouting. Jaune growled angrily and raised his Keyblade above his head. "STOP!" The room froze and Jaune let out a sigh of relief. It looked like things were slowly coming back to him. When he didn't need them to survive, at least.

Jaune sighed and dismissed his Keyblade. "Good, now, how about you introduce us, Ichigo?" Jaune suggested as the spell began to time out and movement returned to everyone.

"What was that!?" Ichigo shouted at Jaune.

Jaune shook his head, then pointed at himself. "The name's Jaune Arc. It's short, sweet, and the ladies love it."

"Do they?" Rukia inquired.

Jaune's gaze fell to the ground, clearly wounded. He muttered to himself, "Why does everyone ask that?"

Ichigo shrugged and gestured at Jaune. "Jaune's here looking for his friend Yang. Those two are Emerald and Mercury, they're _not_ Jaune's friends. They're firm on that," Ichigo muttered, pointing at the two criminals.

" _Very_ firm," Mercury said with a thumbs up.

"Can we get going? Blondie promised he'd get us out of here since we helped him find you," Emerald suggested impatiently. She gestured over her shoulder at the exit. "And I'd rather not fight more of these Soul Reaper tools. I saw some guy with flower petals beating the crap out of somebody way below when we were on our way here."

"Flower – oh, no," Rukia muttered. She looked over at Ichigo. "No, Ichigo, you all need to run! Now! You're in terrible dang -" She was cut off when a massive wave of power suddenly washed over all of them, making everyone present feel like a massive weight had been placed on their shoulders.

"W-what the hell?" Ichigo groaned. He stumbled to the door, with the others quickly following suit. He and Jaune caught sight of a man with pale features and a permanent, haughty scowl standing outside. He glared at Jaune and Ichigo within the doorway and the weight on the two of them increased exponentially.

"No, Byakuya..." Jaune and Ichigo looked over their shoulders at Rukia's terrified face.

"Your brother," Ichigo grunted as he turned back to this newcomer. "Good, we have a score to settle."

"Your brother wants to kill you?" Jaune asked the woman sympathetically. That was... awful.

"Ichigo, no! He'll kill you, just leave! Run away, it's not worth this much trouble to just die!" Rukia snapped. She walked up to Jaune and turned him towards her. "Can you convince this idiot to get away _now_!?"

Jaune looked down at her terrified eyes and was suddenly reminded of Pyrrha. She had given him that same look when she had thrown him into a locker and stopped him from helping her. It had probably saved his life.

But he had the strength now to stand up for others, and he wasn't going to let Ichigo go through the pain of watching her die because she was too stubborn to take some help. "No," he said. He turned back with Ichigo and the two began to walk towards Byakuya.

"We'll run away," Mercury suggested to Rukia.

"Kurosaki. It appears I was too soft with you when last we met," Byakuya said, his voice smooth and condescending. "I will not make that mistake again." He drew his blade and began to walk towards the two warriors at a slow, deliberate gait.

"Neither will I," Ichigo growled. He moved his hand up to his own weapon and drew it in a single, fluid motion. He sprinted towards Byakuya with reckless abandon, swinging Zangetsu into Byakuya's weapon in a massive two handed blow. Byakuya simply blocked it with one hand on his weapon's handle, taking the attack in stride. Ichigo moved quickly into his next attack, but it too was easily deflected.

Jaune ran up and jumped over the fighting duo, landing behind Byakuya and slashing at the man's back. The Captain took a half step back, avoiding both this attack and that of Ichigo. Zangetsu and the Kingdom Key crashed into each other, then Byakuya slashed down on the locked blades with his own sword. Jaune and Ichigo stumbled towards each other and their foreheads slammed together at full speed. "You two are far less skilled than even my last opponent," he said quietly. He disappeared in a blur of black lines, reappearing behind Jaune and kicking the young man right into Ichigo. The two tumbled off the edge of the bridge, screaming in fear. Jaune threw his arm out and grabbed onto the edge of the bridge, catching hold of Ichigo with his other.

"Alley oop," Jaune grunted as he dragged the substitute Reaper up and tossed him back onto the bridge, launching Ichigo into a two handed overhead attack on Byakuya. Using the momentum of throwing Ichigo, Jaune hoisted himself up onto the bridge, too, and swept at Byakuya's ankles simultaneously. Byakuya blocked Ichigo's attack with minimal effort, then glanced down. He disappeared in another flash of blurred lines, reappearing out of the path of Jaune's attack.

"Enough." Byakuya raised his blade in front of his body and disappeared in a flash once more, black streaks signaling his disappearance. Ichigo ws the first to feel Byakuya's wrath, when the sword streaked across his back. Blood flew into the sky and Jaune heard Rukia scream out in anguish. Jaune rushed forward to try and save Ichigo, only to be blown back by some sort of spell slamming into his chest. Jaune landed on his back with a thud.

"Urgh... Have to stay awake," Jaune commanded himself when his vision began to slowly black out. He pushed himself up and forced himself to stay conscious.

"So, another human of great endurance. I was surprised to meet one in this 'Yang,' but to find one in you is another matter."

"Yang?" Jaune asked, his mind clearing for a moment.

"So you knew her. She was a worthy opponent until the end," the Captain said. He seemed oddly honest in his words. Not that it mattered to Jaune's horrified mind.

"W-was?" Jaune asked, eyes widening when he realized what Byakuya was saying. The world turned a dull red and his grip on the Keyblade in his hand tightened, becoming white knuckled. He had killed Yang? He should have been there to help her, to keep her safe! She was his friend, dammit! Jaune snarled and Darkness called from the part of his Heart he had tried to repress pulsed out of his Keyblade, swirling around his shoulders. "You killed her!?" He launched himself at Byakuya, crashing into the man and shattering his guard instantaneously.

The Captain slid backwards a few feet before steadying himself and clutching at his arm. "So, that _is_ a Keyblade. I was unsure given your weakness, but now... I will not tolerate such a threat to Soul Society." He stood up straight and sidestepped the next massive attack that came his way, raising his weapon out to his side. "Scatter, Senbonzakura." The blade shattered, swirling away in a vortex of deadly pink blades. The cloud slammed into Jaune, but he shrugged it off. With a spin of the Keyblade around him, Darkness mingled with the blades and sent them flying away, dispersed like in a tornado.

Jaune didn't even wonder how this man could know what a Keyblade was, instead just moving in to attack. A blade of Darkness flew out of the Keyblade and a cloud of petals swirled around to block the attack, but it was useless as Jaune jumped through the wall with weapon raised over his head. "I'll kill you for hurting my friend!" he snarled, slashing down. Byakuya sidestepped it with an exertion that was, for him, quite visible. He moved past the next attack and landed a blow with his open palm directly in Jaune's sternum. The Keyblade wielder, in his fervor, ignored the pain and continued to attack unabated.

Byakuya gritted his teeth and continued to land blows on Jaune, though they continued to be ignored. Jaune slashed at Byakuya again, and the man was not quick enough to dodge this time. Darkness slammed into his chest and the Captain was sent stumbling backwards. However, this had given him space from Jaune, so he jumped backwards even further to avoid the next Dark slash. "You are born from Darkness, aren't you." He raised his empty blade and aimed it at Jaune, summoning up all of the petals once more and sending them flying directly at the young man. "Darkness and madness, that which legends say is connected to the Keyblade. The end of the world, all because of you."

Jaune heard that and stumbled backwards, each word hitting him hard. The Darkness around his shoulders faded away when he realized what he was doing. He'd lost control because of a friend's death. Pyrrha had sacrificed herself to save his Heart from Darkness. She wouldn't want this. Hell, _Yang_ wouldn't want this and it was because of losing her – a friend – that he was losing control. "What... where..?" Jaune wondered aloud. He dropped his Keyblade and looked around with hazy eyes.

"Blondie look out!"

Jaune looked up just in time to see a swarm of pink petals hit him head on before everything went black.

"Ichigo, Jaune!" The others sprinted out of the tower, with Emerald sliding to a stop above Jaune and Mercury above Ichigo. The two cast Cure spells, healing both slightly but not rousing either from unconsciousness. Rukia watched the wound stitch shut and looked up at Mercury. "What are you?"

"An assassin," Mercury said matter of factly.

"Bullshit," Ganju muttered from above Ichigo. He drew his dagger from his back. "Now get these three out of here. I'll buy you some time."

"Bullshit," Mercury muttered in retort.

"Unfortunately, I have to agree with the silver haired boy," a voice said from above. A woman with long, purple hair and rich, dark skin appeared, descending on a large singular wing. She had an orange shirt on and a pair of tight black pants with cream leg warmers covering her purple boots and the bottom of her leggings. Similarly colored cloth was tied around her forearms like protective gear. She landed between Byakuya, whose sword had just reconstituted into a single blade, and Jaune who was still unconscious on the ground.

"Yoruichi..." Byakuya said, his calm broken for a moment. He took a half step back.

"Been a long time, Byakuya," Yoruichi said coolly, matching the captain's glare with her own.

Byakuya, still yet to fully steady himself, just repeated the woman's name. "Yoruichi Shihoin."

"Byakuya, you just showed these two can't beat you yet. Your superiority was never in question," the woman said. She bent down and threw Jaune over one shoulder; the Keyblade disappeared. Next she walked over to Ichigo and threw him over the other. "So I'll be taking them both, and in no time at all, they'll easily beat you down."

"You would risk letting a Keyblade Wielder live?" Byakuya asked. He shook his head in disappointment, then launched himself at the woman. She snarled and disappeared, reappearing behind him.

"I don't have time to play tag with you, Byakuya. Maybe we'll have another opportunity." Then she jumped and disappeared in a burst of lines, smirking at the captain she had just left behind.

Byakuya watched her go for a few seconds, his hands quivering with rage at her effortless escape. While he stared off into the distance, Emerald, Mercury, Ganju, and Rukia stayed stone still. Something about the Captain right now told them that doing otherwise was a... dangerous prospect. Finally, the man turned to them, rage behind his otherwise calm eyes. "We, uh... we're probably pretty dead, aren't we?" Mercury asked. He raised his hands defensively in front of his body, readying for a losing fight.

"Dammit," Emerald muttered under her breath, the closest she'd get to verbally admitting he was right.

"Return to your cell, Rukia," Byakuya ordered. He shoved past the two human warriors and ignored Ganju readying to fight as well. The Captain grabbed hold of his sister's white shoulder and turned her towards her cell. "Go."

"Yes, brother," Rukia muttered, and she began to dutifully walk back.

"Wait, where are you going? You're listening to this a-hole?" Byakuya and Rukia both turned in surprise to the source of the voice.

"Okay, Merc, now it's my turn to point out the stupid," Emerald hissed, but Merc didn't really hear.

"You aren't even going to try to survive? You're just going to let someone _kill_ you?" Mercury asked, astounded beyond belief. "Someone who just tried to kill your friend?"

"He's my family – like you'd understand!" Rukia snapped, her face turning red with indignant rage.

"Hey! I killed my _dad_ because he tried to kill me, so shut the hell up about what I don't know!" Mercury snapped, pointing his finger at her. "What's the point of a brother or dad who tries to kill you, Ice Queen? If you aren't alive, you can't do what you love. For me, that's fighting, screwing around, and making Emerald as uncomfortable as possible. Are you really going to let everything you love to do never get done again?"

"Insolent human. Be glad I do not have the time for you," Byakuya snapped. He raised his outstretched hand towards Mercury, Ganju, and Emerald. A bright white light began to glow around the outline of his fingers, filling the vision of his three targets. "The Head Captain must be alerted to the presence of a Keyblade among the Ryoka. Now, Tanma Otoshi – Sleep."

"God dammit, Merc, you couldn't just keep your idiot mouth shut?" Emerald growled before everything went black. Her last thought was wondering if she should have wasted a wish on running away.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune yawned and rolled over onto his side. He didn't really want to wake up just yet. Sleep was nice. Sleep didn't slash him with a thousand unpredictable, undodgeable blades of death. Sleep didn't bash him over the head like a Darkness controlled Soul Reaper captain. Sleep was nice. He was warm, and no one was hitting him. Well, usually.

"Wake up, Jaune. I'm not letting you sleep all day." A large foot hit his back probably harder than meant by the person it belonged to.

"Ah, five more minutes, Mom," he mumbled, rolling onto his chest and placing his eyes on the back of his arm to block out the light. "I'm still tired."

"Mommy? Isn't it a bit early in our relationship for that?" Jaune was kicked onto his back by the same boot, this time accompanied by derisive laughter. He groaned and covered his face. He wasn't going to give whoever this was the satisfaction of waking him up. "Hey, Vomit Boy, wake up."

Jaune's eyes flew open. Only one person still called him that, and he was tired of it! "For the last time, Yang, don't – " Jaune froze, just staring at the smirking face of the blonde woman above him. "Yang?"

"Not 'Mommy?'" Yang mocked. She placed her hands on her hips and gave him a big smirk.

Jaune blushed but ignored it. "Yang, you're alive!" he shouted, tears welling up. "Yang, I was so worried after that Byakuya guy said he killed you, I..." Jaune shook his head, not wanting to think about it, and tried to push himself up to hug Yang, only to be stopped by her boot. "Yang, let me up so I can give you a hug!"

"First, did you really call me Mommy earlier?" Yang said with a smirk.

Jaune sighed and shook his head. He grunted, "Never mind. I forgot why everything was so much funnier without you around. Now it's clear."

"Oh, that's not nice." Yang smirked and leaned forward on her foot slightly, causing Jaune to slam against the dirt floor, the air rushing out of his chest. She laughed and continued with, "You're _grounded_ until you apologize."

"Ugh..." Jaune grumbled. He slapped Yang's leg off when her laughter became hard enough that she couldn't keep it firmly on his chest. Jaune pushed himself up and crossed his arms, glaring at her for going there with her joke. Finally, he just sighed and jumped forward, hugging her. "I was so worried I was going to have to tell Ruby you got killed."

"Wh – Eh?" Yang shook her head and pushed Jaune away. "I'm glad you're happy to see me, but why would I be dead?"

"Because you dueled with Byakuya." Jaune turned and summoned the Keyblade, glaring at the newcomer, a woman with dark skin and attractive features. "Except for you two and Ichigo, he tends to easily murder everyone he fights."

He dismissed his weapon and grinned at her. "Hi. The name is Jaune Arc – it's short, sweet, the -" he was cut off by Yang's arm looping around his mouth.

"Don't mind him, Yoruichi. Like I told you earlier, Jaune doesn't know how to talk to women he hasn't met before," Yang said over his muffled cries. She tightened her grip and his cries died out.

"It's fine. It's almost cute," the woman with the purple hair said. She watched Yang let go of Jaune, then waved at him. "Hello, I'm Yoruichi Shihoin. I saved you, Ichigo, and Yang from Byakuya." She walked closer, and got close to examine Jaune. "So, Keyblade Wielder, how do you like it here?"

Jaune looked around at the massive stone cavern. Somewhere from the other side of the cavern, behind a series of large stones, was coming the sound of battle. Sword shards were raining down like shrapnel. "It's... large." He blinked once and shouted out worriedly. "Wait, where's Ichigo!? Ichigo!"

"Hey, is that Jaune!?" The Keyblade wielder looked up at the stone at the center of the cavern. Ichigo was pulling himself up over the stone, an angular and oddly shaped blade in his hand. He stood up tall and began to wave down at the Keyblade Wielder. "Oh, hey! It's good to see you're finally awake!"

"Focus, Master."

Ichigo's brow furrowed and he angrily turned back. "I'm coming, Zangetsu," Ichigo shouted over his shoulder. He returned his gaze to Jaune and waved goodbye before jumping back into action against Zangetsu.

Rather than question what was going on right then, Jaune decided to make sure everything was okay. "Is he gonna be alright?"

"He'll be fine," Yoruichi told Jaune dismissively. She almost sounded like she didn't care, though that she had gone to such great lengths to save them didn't fit with that tone of voice.

Jaune frowned for a moment before asking, finally, "What do you want with us?"

Yoruichi smiled softly. "Keyblades are rare. Kisuke wasn't even sure that they existed," she explained simply. She eyed the young man with an intrigued look. "And the legends surrounding them are... varying. Having seen how differently you fought against Kenpachi and then Byakuya, it's easy to tell why."

Jaune's face fell. He had lost control in front of everyone. "What about Mercury, Emerald, Ganju, and Rukia? Are they here?" Jaune asked, worried about even the criminals despite himself. They'd been helpful and even managed to save his life.

Yang scoffed derisively. Despite the fact that they had helped defeat Salem, Yang was of the opinion – just as almost everyone except Sora was – that they had only done so to save their own skins. At the end of the day, they were a pair of terrorists. "Those two are here? Great, I bet everyone's on high alert because they stole something or blew something up."

"Actually, all they did was help. Again." Jaune shook his head, disappointed in himself, and moved on to the next topic: "I lost control when I heard you died, Yang. I thought I'd lost another friend and that you'd lost your mom, and..." He sat down and sighed. "I was too weak to do anything, as usual."

"Which is why you'll be training here with Ichigo." The two looked up at Yoruichi's suddenly very serious face. She raised a hand to her chin, pondering something for a few moments, then said, "Though, Yang, I do have a favor to ask of you. When the heat dies down a little, I need you to check in on a place called Central 46. Kisuke was worried about what might show up there during all of this."

"Good, I've been dying to get out of here," Yang said with a grin. She slammed her fists together and turned to Jaune. "But in the mean time, from what you've told me it sounds like you've been embarrassing Beacon with your fighting. I feel like I should remind you of our old classes – violently!"

"You slept through our classes!" Jaune protested.

What he got in reply was a fist slamming into his chest that sent him right to the ground. "Not the fighting ones."

Jaune palled. This was going to be a rough few days.


	4. Inner Darkness

**AN: Yo! I'm happy to be back after such a long hiatus. I'm sorry about it, I just had basically four weeks of tests and work and more tests, then this group project thing me and my friends have been working on. It's been a pretty hectic month and I'm glad it's over.**

 **Anyways, I'm not sure, but I don't think that the notification e-mail actually got sent out for the last chapter, as I didn't get a confirmation e-mail despite the fact that it was posted. So, if you didn't get the e-mail and didn't read last chapter, it's up, too.**

 **Thirdly, I'm super excited after seeing that Kingdom Hearts footage from E3. It looks amazing and I can't wait for it to be postponed three more times for no reason. Ah, Square Enix.**

 **Response:**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: I'm glad you look forward to these chapters. They're as entertaining to write as they are to read, I hope, and this** ** _will_** **go on for a while. I love writing these stories.**

 **Anyways, to everyone: I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 _ **Chapter 4: Inner Darkness**_

Jaune and Ichigo crouched together at the top of the large white building that overlooked the Sokyuoku hill. It had been days since they had recovered from their injuries received at the hands of that monstrous Kenpachi, though both had gained more than a few bruises from their respective sparring partners. Still, Ichigo had managed to unlock a transformation of his sword that made him much more powerful; maybe enough to go toe to toe with Byakuya, if what Yoruichi said about this 'Bankai' was to be believed. Jaune, on the other hand, had only managed to be shown by Yang just how little fun it was to be a punching bag.

Jaune watched as, far below, Rukia Kuchiki was marched slowly out of her cell and led towards the huge, 'H' shaped stand at the center of the hill. He glanced over at Ichigo worriedly. The Reaper was wrapped up with bandages down his chest and both arms. A black strap roped around his torso and down his left arm, buckling onto a band at his wrist. Yoruichi had also supplied him with a large, brown cape clasped with a hexagon at his left shoulder. The cape was made of a very light cloth and was imbued with some sort of magic that even let the Reaper fly with some concentration. "You okay?" Jaune inquired quietly.

The young Reaper's jaw was clenched tight. "I'm going to be fine in a few minutes," he responded finally. He was fighting off the urge to fly in now and attack everyone immediately, as Yoruichi had yet to send them the signal that she was ready to attack alongside them. Ichigo shut his eyes and took a breath to try and calm himself. "I just hate waiting when I should be fighting."

"I get you," Jaune said. "But we need to keep an eye out. That Byakuya guy took us down in three seconds flat! I'd rather not get nearly killed by flowers again – it's too much like losing to Ruby in sparring matches when those start flying around."

"What?" Ichigo asked, suddenly confused.

"Never mind. Just... just hold off until we get the go ahead from Yoruichi."

Ichigo growled again and tightened his grip on the massive cleaver resting on his shoulder. "Alright already, let it go! I already said I would," he grumbled angrily. Still, he was smiling at this. They were close – so close that there was no way they were going to lose now. "I'll give her until they put Rukia on that thing. Then I'm heading in no matter what."

"If she doesn't signal us by then, I'll help you mys – " He froze and stared down as a hundred spheres of Darkness erupted out of nowhere, leaving Heartless in their wake as they disappeared. The Reaper Captains that were present drew their weapons and began to shout, ordering their underlings to draw their weapons and begin to defend themselves. One of the creatures appeared behind the procession leading Rukia to her death and easily cut down one of her guards. It jumped up and down for a moment, then threw itself at Rukia with blade raised above its head.

Ichigo was gone before Jaune could do anything. There was a bright flash as Ichigo's large cleaver slashed the Heartless in two, the weapon glowing with a white-blue energy that Ichigo barely managed to hold in. Even from as far as he was, Jaune could see that Ichigo's stance was filled to the brim with cool rage. Jaune stood up and summoned the Kingdom Key back to his hand. "Welp, better get down there," he muttered to himself, then leaped off of the tower with his Keyblade raised in both hands.

A Ronin Heartless looked up as Jaune screamed his way down before slashing the creature in two, the creature's Darkness flaring up before dispersing in smoke around the Keyblade wielder. He looked up and sprinted towards the closest Heartless on his path towards Ichigo, but his attack was blocked by the Heartless' blade. He spun beneath the block, however, pulling his weapon with him and slashing upward through the Heartless. He was running again before it was even dead, carving his way towards Rukia and Ichigo. _Huh, I guess sparring with Yang_ did _help after all,_ he thought to himself. He jumped past an attack made by the last Ronin on his path and it turned to smoke with a quick movement of his Keyblade, its Heart rising towards the sky just like all the others.

"Ichigo!" Rukia shouted as the rest of her guards bailed or were cut down by Heartless. "Y-you're alive!"

"Duh," Ichigo pointed out in response, deflecting the blow of a Ronin and then performing a back kick that sent it flying. "Your stupid brother couldn't kill me back in the human world, so there was no way he'd be able to do it now."

Rukia looked ready to berate him for a moment, but was cut off by a dark skinned arm grabbing her by the back of her white robe. "I said to wait, you two," Yoruichi growled, narrowing her eyes on Ichigo and Jaune. She looked down at Rukia. "Boys – never listen, do they?"

"Ichigo isn't very good at it," Rukia noted dryly.

"Shut it, Midget!" Ichigo growled while he continued to defend their group alongside Jaune. "You won't even let me save you; if one of us can't listen, it's you! Besides, these monster things showed up and tried to kill Rukia. I had to get down here!"

Jaune laughed once, but otherwise didn't turn his attention away from battle. "Okay, we've got Rukia. Now what?" he asked. He slapped a Ronin's sword into the ground before kicking the creature into the path of another Heartless' attack. The two creatures of shadow exploded as they collided, both disappearing completely in a burst of smoke.

"I would think that was obvious." The four looked towards the source of the voice just in time to see a swarm of pink flower petals rocketing towards them.

"Move!" Ichigo shouted, shoving Yoruichi and Rukia out of the way, then raising his blade in front of him defensively. Jaune followed suit and the two were hit by a massive force that forced them backwards through the dirt. "Grrrr – AGH!" Ichigo and Jaune flicked their weapons upward at the same time, sending the stream of pink into the sky and away. They took a moment to glance at where Yoruichi and Rukia had been a moment earlier: Yoruichi had taken the younger woman elsewhere, moving to deposit her before returning to help Jaune and Ichigo.

They were blindsided by another stream of pink a half second later. "Okay, don't look away from Flower Power. Got it," Jaune groaned as he pushed himself up to his feet to glare at Byakuya Kuchiki. He looked over at Ichigo beside him while keeping an eye on the quietly enraged captain. "Ready for this?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed on the ever calm Byakuya. "Oh, hell yeah." He raised his weapon towards the Captain and grinned, an expression full of hunger for battle. The wind began to whip up around him, power swirling around his body ever faster and more dangerously. His cloak fluttered and began to fall apart in the wind. The cloth on Zangetsu wrapped around his arm, coiling like a snake. "Byakuya, I'm not going to let you take away someone who has changed my life, who saved my life! You want a fight, here it comes – Bankai!"

Jaune jumped back, avoiding the initial explosion of energy that centered on Ichigo. A blade of white shot towards Byakuya, who stood still the entire time. The white engulfed him a half second later, and Jaune briefly wondered if Ichigo had managed to defeat – if not murder – Byakuya in a single blow. As the light died down, it slowly became clear that was not the case. Instead of simple destruction, a coffin of pink petals stood firm where the captain had been standing before the explosion of power. They parted and revealed that Byakuya was fine, completely unharmed by the force of Ichigo's attack.

Meanwhile, the wind continued to sirl around Ichigo, pulling in dirt and stone as his power came to its full potential. Jaune could even feel himself being dragged in, so he stabbed the Kingdom Key into the ground and braced against the pull. "Ichigo, you're showing off!" he shouted over the whipping wind.

The wind stopped at that, and a pulse of power rippled out from the epicenter. The dust cleared away instantly, revealing Ichigo standing in a completely new outfit. The top half of his outfit had turned into a long, black cloak with jagged edges and a thin white lining that curved from the inside to the outside. The main body of the inside layer was blood red, unlike the inside of his original uniform which had been white and black, and the arms of this ankle long coat had become fitted at the wrists. Cloth bandages wrapped around his torso and were tucked beneath the same baggy pants as before. The biggest change, however, was the stark evolution of his sword. Where once it had been a massive meat cleaver, now Zangetsu was a thin, long, and elegant looking blade of pure black. Four links formed a chain at the end of the handle and reminded Jaune slightly of the weapon in his own hands. He angled his weapon at Byakuya and grinned, saying, "Tensa Zangetsu... I'm gonna enjoy this."

"With that small weapon? No, you will not." Byakuya summoned his blade back to his hand and pointed its tip straight at the ground. "Not even with a Keyblade Wielder at your side will you be able to destroy me. Bankai – Senkei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!" He dropped the blade and it melted through the ground, leaving behind only ripples in the stone.

Jaune was immediately hit with another explosion of power, this time emanating from Byakuya. "Is this just a common thing here!?" he shouted as he pulled the Kingdom Key from the ground and forced himself to advance on Byakuya. The sky darkened above him, a black nothingness that began to expand into the walls of a dome. Heartless bounced off of the powerful barriers and died, Light bursting from their bodies. "Oh, good, everyone else can transform their weapons and I can't. I _was_ starting to get homesick."

Pink swords appeared along the walls of the dome, slowly spinning around the battlefield. Jaune immediately knew that this meant attacks could come from any direction and readied to block. "Sure, it's real pretty, but it won't stop me!" Ichigo shouted, tensing his legs and launching himself directly at Byakuya. "I'll beat you whether the sky is blue or black!"

"Ichigo, wait!" Jaune shouted, sprinting after the other man. He raised the Kingdom Key and threw himself behind Ichigo on instinct, raising the Keyblade and blocking a pink sword that had been rushing for the small of Ichigo's back. The pink weapon shattered into a thousand petals as it collided with the Keyblade, petals floating back to the dome of swords and reforming into a new blade. Jaune turned his attention over his shoulder to Ichigo, thinking he had helped save him, only to see a half dozen more blades shooting at Ichigo from every direction.

Ichigo noticed them, too, slashing at the attacks with his own blade. One, two, three fell quickly to Zangetsu. Jaune ran again, throwing the Kingdom Key ahead and shattering another two before jumping ahead and tackling Ichigo out of the way of the last attack. The two tumbled across the ground, Jaune pushing himself to their feet as they went. Jaune summoned his weapon back to his hand and raised it defensively. "Why'd you do that, I had him!" Ichigo shouted before jumping to his feet, too.

"And a sword through the neck. We need to go in side by side!" Jaune snapped back. "Or would you rather die and never see your girlfriend again?"

"I – fine, let's just do this."

"Even together you won't be able to defeat me," Byakuya repeated simply. He summoned a pair of blades to his hands from the pink dome, and then settled into a ready stance that looked almost as effortless as it did deadly. "I will destroy two threats to the Soul Society in one fell swoop."

Then he charged forward, moving at speeds that anyone who wasn't a Keyblade Wielder or a Reaper of Ichigo's caliber could see. Still, they were barely able to avoid the twin swords, each slashing at the throat of one of Byakuya's opponents. Jaune stumbled backwards while Ichigo raised Zangetsu to block the attack and move directly into his own. Jaune recovered and did the same, the two hoping that they could throw Byakuya off his game if they fought him simultaneously.

However, true to his word, Byakuya made sure that the presence of both warriors was completely meaningless. Ichigo slashed with fast, precise strikes at Byakuya, putting as much power as possible into every blow. Byakuya would simply sidestep, block, or redirect the blow towards Jaune, who was having trouble keeping up with the two warriors. They would disappear and reappear every few moments, as if they were moving at speeds he had only ever seen Ruby truly master. That he could see and respond at all was probably only because of the Keyblade and his experience with his friend.

Despite his obvious disadvantage, he _was_ surviving. The Keyblade's ability to be summoned back to his hand at any point made it a very useful defensive weapon if one thought about using it in the right way. Every time Byakuya or Ichigo's blade would come too close to his off side and he wasn't ready to block, he could summon the weapon to his other hand and use it to give him a buffer to dodge the attack. He even got a few strikes in at Byakuya, and a few of both his and Ichigo's made their way through the Captain's defense. Likewise, retaliatory blows would occasionally leave trails of blood flying from Ichigo and leave hefty dents in Jaune's Aura.

The Keyblade Wielder swung again as an opening presented itself, throwing the Keyblade around with the full force he could muster in an attack. He soon found himself face to face with the Reaper for a moment. A memory appeared in Jaune's mind, a tortured explosion from the final battle with Salem. "I am going to your home, to the people you love the most. I'm going to make you watch as you slaughter each of them."

"She's your sister!" He snapped as the pain grew in his chest, threatening to explode outward. "I have sisters. A family, and if anyone ever threatened them, I would destroy them! You have to see that you should be helping us!" Black energy began to flare up on the edge of the Keyblade and the twin blades in Byakuya's hands shattered. The Reaper looked taken aback, barely managing to dodge in time to avoid the energy lashing out at him. Jaune's eyes widened in fear and self disgust and he jumped backwards, fighting to get his emotions under control while Ichigo began to make the most of their temporary advantage.

"He's right, Byakuya. You should be trying to save Rukia," Ichigo snapped, slashing downward with his blade. The Captain danced around the brunt of the blow, though the sword managed to skin his shoulder and leave a bloody red mark. Two more blades rushed to Byakuya's hands, and he moved as if he had not been hurt in the slightest. One moved out to slap Ichigo's weapon away while the other simultaneously flashed downward and into Ichigo's foot. "GAH!" Ichigo's scream was silenced by four stiff fingers to the throat followed up by a back kick to the chest. His foot was torn from the blade that buried it in the ground, but Ichigo was already unconscious by the time he was in the air.

"Fools, both of you," the Captain muttered as he approached Jaune with another blade in his hand. Jaune raised his weapon defensively, forcing himself from his shock, but it was too late: Byakuya's blade slapped the Keyblade from his hands and moved almost instantaneously to his throat. "Honor, the Law, and the World are not worth one life. Even the life of my sister."

Jaune glared over at the Captain, refusing the fear rising in his gut."Take it from someone who betrayed the people who loved him. You'll regret it forever," Jaune told the captain hollowly, taking a half step back. He summoned the Keyblade back to his hands just as Byakuya raised one finger towards him.

Byakuya's index finger began to glow with a bright blue light. "Hado Four – Byakur -" Byakuya grunted in surprise and pain as a black and red explosion of power slammed into the small of his back and sent him flying over Jaune.

The Keyblade wielder wasn't sure to be happy or worried. That was Darkness, the exact same Darkness Zangetsu had used against him in Ichigo's Heart. "Ichigo -" he raised his Keyblade defensively as quickly as he could, barely managing to catch the massive wave of black and red Darkness that had rushed towards him. Jaune let the weapon fall to his side as he watched Ichigo's body walk towards him without a single wound and some sort of white material swirling around his face. "Who are you?"

The first response that Jaune received was unnerving, manic laughter that sounded like a high pitched, echoing farce of Ichigo's. The second was just as unnerving. "You've forgotten me so fast, Keyboy? I guess that's fair, you were busy getting your face smashed in by the old man, after all." The face looked up at him, Ichigo's sanity replaced with Darkness behind half of a white, skull like mask adorned with three crimson lines reaching above the eye and down the nose, a similar shape below the eye. Ichigo's eyes had turned black with golden, Dark-filled irises. "You smell Dark, you know. I want see what that's all about!" Then the figure wearing Ichigo launched itself at Jaune, and the two sided battle became three sided.

 _ **S M H S**_

Yang sprinted across the bridge leading towards the Central 46, ignoring her reflection in the crystal clear waters on either side of it in favor of the large red doors at the other end of the pathway. Something big was going on, she could tell. Jaune and Ichigo were doing something stupid – which she probably could have figured out just from meeting the two. But she could also feel this weight in the air, like they were doing something _really_ stupid. "If those two didn't listen to Yoruichi, they're probably going to die," she muttered to herself as she approached the door. She clenched one fist at her side and leaped into the air, ignoring the rows and columns of blades that appeared out of the door frame to reinforce the gate. She'd be able to break through no sweat with the massive fireball that she was creating in her fist. She threw it forward, and a Firaga shot from her hand and exploded against the door. Wood and steel flew both out of the building and into it, some even splashing into the water. Yang landed amidst the wreckage of the door and swords and shook her head. "So much for that _cutting edge_ design. You'll need a _sharper_ mind to come up with a wall I can't break!" She laughed to herself then looked around in disappointment, noting that there was no one else to hear her. "Aw..."

She sullenly kicked a shard of debris with her right foot; she wasn't a fan of this 'working alone' type thing anymore. She'd spent too much time working with someone to go back now. Hopefully the next place she and Jaune went they wouldn't have to split up. She grew happier at that thought and ran inside.

Yang sprinted down a flight of stairs, a faint scent growing ever stronger. "What is that?" she wondered aloud, her steps progressively slowing down. The smell was rotten, the scent of something decaying and – Yang stopped halfway down the stairs as she caught sight of a massive pool of dried blood at the bottom of the stairs. Her fists clenched at her sides and Ember Celica shot into its activated form. Yang took a cautious step down the stairs, waiting for an attack that did not come. Then she took another step, then another, until finally she was at the bottom and could see the full carnage that had taken place.

There were dozens of bodies strewn about the room, each covered in deep gashes created from a sword moving through their bodies at high speeds. Pillows and tables were thrown everywhere, many of them also cut into pieces by the same blade. She walked down the steps and into the center of the carnage. "Ah, a visitor. I honestly expected it to be a Reaper, not one of you Ryoka. Sorry about the mess, I suppose I shouldn't have left it lying around." Yang spun around and launched a Firaga at the newcomer, only for the massive fireball to be easily slapped aside by a plain looking katana. The blade was slowly lowered, revealing a Soul Reaper Captain standing where she had been a moment earlier. He was tall – especially for the people of this world. He had brown hair parted slightly to the right of center that dangled down around and over his square glasses. His features could easily be mistaken for mild, or even kind, but the flatness of his eyes betrayed boredom and cruelty. The man raised his weapons out to his side and his smirk grew more cruel and self confident. "So, you finally found me and discovered my plans. Surely you are surprised to learn I am still alive!"

"...Uh -" Yang was cut off as the man began to explain his actions in the typical 'I'm the bad guy' way. First Torchwick, then Taurus, Weiss' Dad, Salem, and now this? It was becoming a little too routine for her liking. To be fair, however, his voice was uncharacteristically saccharine for this speech.

"From the very beginning, since I became a Captain, this has been my plan. The little people here could never hope to understand me, understand my _true_ identity. I – "

"Which is?"

The man stopped talking, freezing and glaring down at the woman with increasingly angry eyes. "What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Bad Guy, I must not have been clear. Who are you?" Yang asked. She crossed her arms and glared at him with as much mocking and sarcasm as she could muster. "You're acting like you're something you're not – interesting."

The man scoffed and shut his eyes, holding back his anger. "I assumed Yoruichi would tell you of me." Yang raised an eyebrow at that. She assumed Yoruichi's presence wouldn't be known by anyone, so how did this man who looked like the walking dictionary definition of average know about her? "Surprised that I know about her and Kisuke?"

Yang turned around, jumping when she saw that the man had appeared behind her as well. "What the hell?"

"You are not one of Ichigo's... 'friends.' That must mean you came here with the Keyblade Wielder." The figure smirked as her fist came up, again coated in flames. He simply moved his hand and caught her wrist, letting the flames soar past him and into the wall. "You're obviously think you're very strong, don't you?"

She turned, the figure disappearing and the voice coming again from the doorway. The man stared at her. "Okay. Maybe you are interesting..." she paused, waiting for a name.

"Oh, you'll learn soon enough." He raised his blade. "Come. Take the first move. I won't even move from where I'm standing right now, _Little Girl_."

Yang snarled and clenched her fists at her sides, her hair flaring up like flames and her eyes turning a deep scarlet at the insult. "Oh, you sound pretty cocky for a guy that makes easy listening singers look tough," she growled from behind a confident facade. In all honesty, the man scared her. He seemed to be moving faster than she could even see, or was maybe in two places at the same time. She raised her fists.

"Big talk only makes one look small, _Little Girl_."

Yang ignored him and threw her fist straight down, a Blizzaga materializing in her fist and slamming into the ground. The man's eyebrow raised in surprise and interest at the sudden change in her spell use and the stark contrast with her flaming hair. The floor quickly froze solid, ice spreading out in every direction and creeping over the bodies in the room and over the body of the man standing at the top of the stairs. Yang stood up quickly and raised her fists behind her, firing off a pair of Firagas and flying at her opponent, letting her deliver a massive blow that shattered him completely into a thousand, icy fragments. She landed on her feet and raised her fists warily. Her fight with Flower Power had been more difficult than that, which meant that this one had been too easy.

"I see I was wrong. You are smarter than you let on." Yang turned just in time for a blade to slash across her chest, sending her tumbling backwards. She could tell that the one blow had taken out a quarter of her Aura. She also could tell that the attack was nowhere near a serious one. She raised her gauntlets to block the next attack, jumping to the side and launching a Blizzard spell at the man, quickly followed by a Fire from her other hand. He sidestepped the two attacks easily, then angled his blade at Yang's throat. She caught the attack in her prosthetic palm, yanking down on the weapon and launching a punch directly at the Reaper's face. This attack actually looked like it somewhat surprised him, and a wave of power rushed out of his body. Yang was thrown away before her attack could land and she slammed into the wall hard, another chunk of her aura vanishing from the force of the blow.

The man walked towards her. "Well, I must say that I am impressed. I did not expect you to have such a high quality prosthesis or such varying abilities. Still, you were no match for someone with my level of power. It was a mistake to challenge me." The man's blade rose to Yang's throat and smirked again. "You will not make that mistake again... Though you could still serve a purpose." His blade lowered and he pulled Yang onto the floor a short distance from the wall. He took a long strip of white cloth from within his shihakusho, then turned away from the young woman and began to spin the cloth around them

"I'm going to kick your -"

Yang was cut off by a foot snapping across her face, knocking her out.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding the black blade that had been rushing at him. The metal slammed into the ground and the force of the blow shattered it, causing the area to sink downards. Jaune, already a somewhat clumsy young man, flailed as the ground beneath him gave out and caved in. The manic laughter continued and the sword came down in an overhead blow again. Jaune raised the Keyblade and blocked the blow, already knowing that whatever this thing was, it was not fighting him seriously. The force ripped through his arms and down his spine, forcing Jaune to one knee. "You're putting Ichigo in a lot of danger, Keyboy! I'm wondering why he's putting up with you!" Ichigo's foot came up and punted Jaune out of the crater.

Jaune flipped himself upright midair and glanced down. He caught sight of a pair of pink tinged swords flying towards him, so he batted the closest one away – shattering it into a thousand pink shards – then twisted around the next one. "Really? We don't have more important things to worry about?!" Jaune snapped, swirling midair to deliver a powerful blow to Byakuya Kuchiki's guard. The man slid back a few feet from the blow and jumped to the side, avoiding an explosive wave of black and red energy that slammed into the ground where he had stood.

"What's up with all the talking? You trying to make friends, Byakuya?" the creature controlling Ichigo asked mockingly as it landed in a crouch in front of Byakuya. It laughed menacingly and slashed upward, the attack leaving a deep red gash in the man's chest despite his best attempts to evade the attack. The monster was forced backwards when a flurry of blades rained through him, sending him flying back and leaving a trail of blood on the ground leading into a cloud of dust.

The cloud was torn apart a moment later, a completely undamaged Ichigo-Creature leaping towards Jaune and Byakuya at high speeds. Jaune ducked beneath the first blow, simultaneously bringing his Keyblade up to block Byakuya's attack. Then he used the distraction of Byakuya's second blade rushing towards Ichigo's throat to resummon his Keyblade and slam it into the monster's side. The creature cried out in pain and fury before it was thrown into Byakuya's sword, the pink edge piercing its side before disappearing when the two bodies collided.

"That... _hurt_ ," the creature said as it stood up. It slashed down, trying to kill Byakuya, but he disappeared in a blur of black and reappeared, bleeding, on the other side of the dome. The three warriors were now standing in an equilateral triangle. Jaune and Byakuya waited, knowing that the thing controlling Ichigo would make the first move and quickly; it didn't seem the patient type.

And they were right. "Getsuga Tenshou!" the monster screamed, the red and black energy swirling around the blade in Ichigo's hand. The monster flicked Ichigo's wrist and the energy stopped swirling, instead flying in a jagged arc directly at Byakuya. The man moved to dodge, but the energy hit him before he could move. Simultaneously, the creature leaped at Jaune and their blades collided with a loud, pealing _ring_. "I'm going to kill you for your little stunt, you idiot!"

"Ichigo, get control of yourself!" Jaune yelled as he was forced backwards by the creature.

The creature laughed. "Ichigo handed control over to me! He knows he can't do this himself, he knows I can do it all for him and that's the only way he'll beat Byakuya!" The monster mocked. It raised the blade and slammed it back down on Jaune's blade, again and again. The force kept running down the Keyblade Wielder's limbs and shaking his fingers, threatening to tear the weapon from his grasp. "I'm the only way he can even win!"

"Ichigo, is it even your win if this thing takes Byakuya down? Does it mean anything if a it's a monster thatbeats Byakuya and not someone who cares about Rukia?" Jaune shouted as the Keyblade was torn from his hands. It soared through the air, burying itself in the dirt beside its wielder.

The creature, its mask almost completely covering Ichigo's face now, looked down at Jaune and laughed gleefully. "Of course it -" It froze, the eyes visible behind the mask widening. "What? What are you doing? I have this finished! Byakuya can't win! This idiot can't get you killed anymore!"

The creature staggered backwards, swinging the sword around violently, the other hand gripping the bottom of the mask and trying to tear it off. It was Ichigo's voice that came out next. "You're trying to kill my friend!"

"He's dangerous!" the monster retorted as it struggled against Ichigo. "Let me do this – I'll even save the damn little girl!"

"No, I already promised that I would! You're interfering!" Ichigo shouted. He slammed his sword down into the ground and grabbed the mask over his face with both hands, looping his fingers around the top edge.

"You're the one interfering, you idiot!" the monster screamed, trying with all of its might to keep Ichigo from tearing the mask from his face. "I can win if you just let me! I can keep all your stupid friends safe!"

"I'm going to do this, me and my friends. Not some monster!" Ichigo roared and pulled on the mask with all of his might, Dark and Light clashing where the mask was being removed. Jaune glanced to the side, catching sight of a stunned Byakuya. "And I won't break that promise!" With one final pull, the mask came off and shattered in Ichigo's hands. The monster screamed, the noise fading and dying after a few seconds.

"Ichigo..?" Jaune questioned, standing up and yanking the Keyblade from the ground. He raised it defensively, hoping Ichigo was in control now, but not sure.

Ichigo stood up straight, eyes white and brown again. "Oof... Sorry about that. Didn't mean to try and kill you," he said, grinning sheepishly and scratching the back of his head. He pulled Zangetsu from the ground and looked over at Byakuya. "And, uh, sorry for our fight's interruption." He raised his blade towards Byakuya and his grin turned into a confident, thin smile. "Let's pick up where we left off."

Byakuya stared at Ichigo and Jaune, his eyes alight with the turning of the gears in his mind. His features softened, just barely, and he stood up straight with his blade held out to his side. "Very well." He shuffled his feet and brought the sword up in front of him. "I will not ask either of you to explain what just happened, despite the fact that the Keyblade Wielder obviously has some idea. We are tired, broken, and bleeding. We will end this. Now, with one final attack."

"That seems... anticlimactic," Jaune noted. He glanced over to see that Ichigo was already charging up the energy in his sword, a wild grin on his face. Byakuya looked much the same. "Oh, or... Sure, sure I guess this could be what we do. Why not?" He raised the Keyblade in front of him. "Please work." Then he stood beside Ichigo and focused with closed eyes, trying to channel the Light in his Heart down the blade. When he opened his eyes, he was excited to see that it had worked. The Kingdom Key was bathed in a second blade of Light, a condensed edge made of pure magic. He lowered the weapon to parallel with Ichigo's.

Byakuya took a deep breath, and the pink surrounding them began to flood towards his sword, a thousand streams of energy converging in front of him and slowly shifting into a brilliant, blinding white. A pillar of energy shot upwards from the man, the only energy visible against the black of the dome. It diverged some distance above him, splitting into wings of white flame and a screeching, red eyed beak in front of the man. Above him, the wings were connected by a smooth arch of light. "Shukei Hakuteiken." Then the man sprinted towards Ichigo and Jaune.

"Damn," Ichigo and Jaune said at the same time. Jaune looked over at Ichigo. "You don't have anything like that, do you?"

"No. But let's see how we can do," he said, grinning. He looked back at the Captain sprinting towards them. Black energy swirled around his blade, the Darkness merging with the Light surrounding Jaune's Keyblade.

At the same time, the two men threw their weapons forward, the energy trailing behind their blades, and roared as one. "Light-Dark Getsuga Tenshou!" The energy collided with Byakuya, and fuzzy numbness overtook the senses of all three men for a moment.

Then it cleared. Ichigo and Jaune were standing, completely spent of all energy, in front of a bloody Byakuya. The Phoenix around him had dissipated, leaving only a few pink shards swirling around him. "Well... looks like you two won..."

Ichigo and Jaune panted, but didn't say anything. "You fought Darkness I had never seen despite the fact it would have destroyed me for you. You defeat me on your own, knowing it would exhaust you. You... are not what I expected from an invader and a Keyblade Wielder."

Jaune and Ichigo tried to respond now, but couldn't get the words out. They were both surprised they were even standing right then, and it felt like their bodies weren't willing to waste energy on talking at that exact moment. Maybe in a few seconds. Byakuya stumbled backwards before catching himself and forcing his body upright, the arrogant glare returning to his eyes. "Are you still going to hunt Rukia?" Ichigo asked, his voice finally returning to him.

"What is the law if those who enforce it do not follow it? Pointless." Byakuya shut his eyes, telling himself that same thing.

Byakuya's thoughts were interrupted and his eyes flew open. "And what if they enforce a law that is wrong?" Jaune countered, his blue eyes filled with fire.

Ichigo answered for the Captain, snapping, "I'd fight until that stupid law was gone!"

"Hm..." Byakuya considered this before turning away, the words speaking to his Heart despite his attempts to harden it. Finally, he relented and spoke to the young men once more: "Because of the strength hidden in your Hearts, my sword has been broken. I shall pursue Rukia no longer; it would be pointless. I could not defeat you." Then he disappeared in a flash, dust exploding upward behind him.

Ichigo and Jaune glanced at one another, then back at where the man had been, then back at one another. "Uh... No victory screams, okay?"

Ichigo blushed – or maybe that was just blood on his cheeks. "I wasn't going to do that," he responded. The two stabbed their swords into the ground and bent over, breathing in deeply. Both of them hissed in pain as their empty stomachs and nearly empty energy stores hit them all at once. "You're right, it would've been a bad idea."

"Yeah..." Jaune forced himself upright. "Okay. Now to get out of here and find Yoru...i...chi..." Jaune took a deep, shaky breath, and watched as a pair of portals opened up in front of him and Ichigo. From one, a white haired Reaper Captain and a dark skinned Captain with a visor appeared standing side by side, Rukia kneeling in front of them. Yoruichi must not have hidden her well enough. From the other, a single, calm looking Captain appeared standing over – "Yang!" Jaune sprinted towards the man standing above her, raising his Keyblade.

"Oh, her friend." The man turned towards Jaune and raised his blade towards the young man. He deflected Jaune's clumsy, exhausted attack and slammed him into the ground with his foot. Jaune struggled uselessly against the man's weight and strength until the tip of the weapon angled down at his throat. "The _other_ Keyblade Wielder."

"Other?" Jaune asked, confused. But the only other Keyblade Wielders around were Ruby and Sora. Did that mean they were following him and Yang? Why?

"Yes, he was quite the help."

"Sora would never help someone like you!" Jaune screamed, pushing harder against the foot on his chest. He could feel anger rising in his chest at the fact this man would suggest such a thing, and that he would hurt Yang. He couldn't let him get away with this. The Reaper stumbled backwards slightly and his eyes widened. The force redoubled and Jaune hit the ground, harder than before. He yelped in pain as the blade the man was holding was forced through his gut. "AGH!"

"I have never fought one of your kind before, but I expected m -" The man looked up to see Ichigo rushing him. The Captain sighed and walked towards Ichigo, leaving Jaune pinned to the ground by his sword. The man raised his hand and caught Ichigo's sword in his hand, a massive burst of energy accompanying the action. The energy ripped through Ichigo and blood flew from his body, forcing him to crumple to the ground, defeated. The man returned to Jaune. "As I was saying, I've never fought a Keyblade Wielder before, but you appear to be a... sad example of your kind. It would be so easy to kill you."

Jaune gritted his teeth and summoned his Keyblade back to his hand, swiping at the sword in his body. The Keyblade passed through it harmlessly and it disappeared, as did the pain in his body and the wound he had received. "You broke through my illusion. But still, easy to kill." The Captain avoided Jaune's angry, tired, clumsy blows and slapped him away. Jaune gasped in pain as the last of his Aura vanished completely and he was left frozen on the ground, a white glow surrounding him for a half second. "I won't, however. Something about you tells me that that Keyblade Wielder wants you alive. No point in alienating a possible ally just to kill a child." He turned away from Jaune and towards Rukia. "Hello there, Rukia Kuchiki. Where's Yoruichi?"

"Rukia stared at him in surprise. "C-captain Aizen?" she muttered. She shook her head. "On her way to kill you, likely!"

"Hmph. Gin," Aizen said, glancing over at the white haired, snake looking Captain. The other man nodded and aimed his weapon towards Rukia, the blade extending on command towards the woman.

"No." A flash of black appeared where Rukia was standing and pulled her out of the attack's way, taking the blow to protect the young woman. Byakuya Kuchiki clutched his sister to his chest and held the sword that had pierced his chest tightly, refusing his aggressor the opportunity to withdraw it.

"Brother?" Rukia asked, surprised that he would save her. "What are you doing?"

The man holding her looked over at Jaune's barely conscious form. "Keeping myself from eternal regret." He looked up at Aizen and his followers. "You will not harm her."

"It's cute you believe that," Aizen said, suddenly behind the two. He jammed his own sword through Byakuya's arm, forcing him to drop the woman. Aizen's hand lashed out and he grabbed her by the red collar attached to her throat, then forcibly dragged her away from Byakuya.

"No!" he snapped, letting go of the sword in his chest and trying to move towards Rukia. The blade was withdrawn and he stumbled a few feet before he, too, fell face first into the ground.

"Come now, Rukia Kuchiki," Aizen said as he held her out in front of himself. He grinned softly at her terrified eyes and looked over at Ichigo and Jaune, who were struggling to drag themselves towards him. "Quite the impressive specimens, even if they are horribly outclassed." He returned his attention to Rukia. "I'm almost surprised that Kisuke Urahara was foolish enough to place the Hogyoku in such a weak vessel. Did he think I would not find it here, that I would not find a way to take it from you? He created something that could fuse Light and Darkness – altering the base state of reality – then put it within you." He raised his hand and green scales appeared along his arm, which he shoved into Rukia's chest. She shrieked in pain as he pulled back, revealing a small, white marble between his index finger and thumb. He dropped Rukia and turned away, the scales disappearing.

"Now, I really should leave before the other Reapers and the Head Captain destroy these Heartless that you led here," he said, walking over to the barely conscious, and very angry Keyblade Wielder. "I should It should be quite familiar to you, the way I'm planning on leaving" He stood up straight and took his glasses off, then ran a hand through his hair. He looked down, somehow even more arrogant looking than before. As he lowered his hand to his side, a large portal of Darkness appeared behind him. "I suspect you'll be seeing my ally sometime soon. Try not to die – you could be useful." Then he turned and walked through the portal, followed by the other two captains.

"No!" Jaune snapped, trying to drag himself towards the portal. He couldn't let them get away with something that could, apparently, alter reality. "I won't let you... get away with...this..." His head hit the dirt and the world went black.

 _ **S M H S**_

About two days later, Jaune was standing with Yang, Mercury, Emerald, Rukia, and Ichigo, in the middle of a meadow. Ichigo's friends had already headed home with Yoruichi, who had said Kisuke would be excited to hear about a Keyblade Wielder and had told Jaune to look them up if he ever ended up in Karakura Town.

Things had quieted down a lot since Aizen had escaped with the Hyogyoku and the Heartless had been destroyed; for one, the entire group of Ryoka – Offworlders included – were being treated like tenuous allies by the Soul Reapers. The Head Captain had ordered the healers to help everyone, and had freed those who had been imprisoned. "So, I guess you guys are all heading off to... wherever you're from," Ichigo said, arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, we've got our own missions to complete. More friends to save, you get the _point,"_ Yang said, grinning wildly. "You see, 'cause the swords? Heh?"

Jaune looked over at her and debated shaking his head in disappointment. Seeing as she had nearly died and it was his fault they had crashed there in the first place, he decided he'd humor her. "Not your worst one," he said half-heartedly. He turned back to Ichigo. "Don't worry, if you need someone to save you... well, we'll come, but you saw how things went."

"I was not prepared, thank you," Yang said, wrapping her arm around Jaune's shoulders. "Next time I meet that Aizen tool I'm taking him down. Mark my words, I'll be in on that fight."

"Goldilocks will take out the big bad? Sure, she could barely even beat me when I was trying to lose," Mercury remarked, with a laugh. He barely even noticed that he'd stopped calling her 'the Bimbo.' Despite his best attempts to claim otherwise, he felt some sort of... well, not friendship, but after seeing everything he had seen with them and done with them he respected the two blondes.

"Really? How's the knee?" Yang asked.

He didn't respect her _that_ much, however. Mercury smirked and retorted, "Fine. How's the arm?"

"Handy," she said, grinning wide and waving the yellow fingers.

Rukia scoffed and chuckled to herself. "Is it often like this for you?"

Jaune, Yang, Mercury, and Emerald looked at one another. "This is the first time we've all interacted, to be honest," Yang explained. She shrugged. "Six months ago I'd have beaten the crap out of those two. Three months ago I would have slapped the crap out of Vomit Boy."

"Yang, could you not call me that?"

"Nope, Vomit Boy."

Emerald shook her head before explaining what Yang meant. "Before this, at least one of us was trying to kill the others at any given moment," she said. Rukia and Ichigo blanched slightly. "Besides Goldilocks, we've all been the bad guy for a while."

"Oh," Ichigo said, looking over at Jaune. "So you know a bit about your inner monster controlling you, huh?" Jaune nodded somberly in response, trying not to remember when he had helped Salem.

"Ah, good, you're all still here!" The group turned to see a man walking towards them,a Reaper Captain with long white hair and a kind, if sickly, looking face. He walked up and closed his eyes, grinning at everyone. "I was hoping to talk to you before you left."

"Captain Ukitake!" Rukia said, immediately bowing to the man. She looked over at Ichigo's pointed, unimpressed glare. "Show some respect, idiot!"

"Why?" Ichigo countered dryly.

"It's fine, Rukia. It's a little refreshing, actually," he said. He held up a hand for a moment before returning it to his side. "I wanted to say thank you for saving Rukia. She's one of the members of my division and my plan to save her was sidetracked by the appearance of those creatures." He bent over and began to cough violently, the fit lasting for a few minutes. "Ah, sorry about that. Anyways, thank you again."

The man grew more serious, though unlike Aizen this man retained his good nature and kind eyes. "On another note, the Head Captain wants to thank you all as well. Whatever your reasons for coming here, you have been pardoned. And Ichigo, you need something important." The man reached into his pocket. "You see, there have been other Substitute Soul Reapers, and they have always carried one of these badges." He pulled out a pair of matching, pentagonal shaped pieces of wood. A skull like mask was carved into the center of its face over an 'X.' One was larger than the other and connected to a loop of rope. The other was a third the size with a single black chain. "He also insisted your Keyblade wielding friend have this." He handed the larger one to Ichigo and the smaller one to Jaune.

Jaune looked down at the item in his hand, examining it closely and feeling a level of familiarity with the item despite not understanding what it might be for. "What's this for?" he asked.

Ukitake shrugged. "The Head Captain simply said you would know when the time came for it to be used," he supplied, he himself unsure about the item's use.

There was a moment's pause, a silence that existed for a single moment. "... This is the land of the dead, right?" Jaune asked, unable to stop himself. He looked up at Ukitake's raised eyebrow. "If – If I lost someone, would they be here?"

Ukitake frowned and leaned in close, taking great care that Rukia and Ichigo would not hear him. "The Soul Society does not hold the Souls of the Dead for every world, Jaune. If you are looking for someone, their soul will not be here." Then he moved away from Jaune and smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

"I... Thank you," Jaune muttered. He coughed and pocketed the Reaper Badge. "Thank you." He turned around in surprise when Yang's hand rested sympathetically on his shoulder, a sad smile on her face.

"No, thank you. All of you." Ukitake turned to Rukia and said, "Your brother is awake now if you want to see him."

"Thank you, Captain," Rukia replied, bowing slightly as she did. She turned to Ichigo and smiled. "See you later, Ichigo. Thanks for never listening."

"Sure, Midget," Ichigo said, a soft smile gracing his features. He waved with one hand and watched her go off with her Captain. Once she disappeared from view, he sighed and turned to Jaune. "I guess I'll see you later."

"Oh, I hope so," Yang said, waving with each finger.

"Could you stop flirting for five seconds?" Jaune asked caustically.

Yang laughed mockingly: "You're one to talk! How many ladies actually love the name, Vomit Boy?"

Emerald sighed and shook her head. "You know, it was nice to see them again but..."

"You hope we never see them again? Oh, don't worry, I get it," Mercury muttered. He raised his voice. "Yo, Blondies – Have fun, would you?" They were ignored in favor of squabbling between the two blonde warriors from Remnant. Merc and Em glanced at one another, then walked away and into a portal leading to another world.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune sat silently in the passenger seat of their Gummi ship, watching as Yang went through the last check before they began exploring again. Yang laughed and shook her head upon checking the Remnant-locked clock in the ship. "Jeez, Professor Ozpin wasn't lying when he said these new worlds would have weird flowing time. Jaune, we've already been gone for two months!"

Jaune barely heard her say this; he was feeling guilty with the knowledge that her getting injury had been his fault, because he had crashed the Gummi Ship and hadn't been strong enough to do anything and – He took a deep breath, stopping himself from spiraling any further. He looked over at Yang again, and noticed her staring right back at him. "What? D-do I have something on my face?"

Yang sighed and looked back at the front of the ship. "Look, I wanted to apologize, okay? I crashed the Ship and I was driving like a maniac when you can barely handle five miles an hour. I should have toned it down a little. We good?"

"Urm... I, uh..." Jaune stammered he laughed nervously and shook his head. "I, uh, I was actually going to apologize for stealing the wheel and crashing the Ship. It was _my_ fault," he insisted. He was more than a little visibly embarrassed she was apologizing to him. It wasn't a very Yang thing to do for just driving fast.

Yang laughed, though hers was born more of amusement than anxiety. "Wow, look at us! Apologizing for doing the same thing wrong." She looked back at Jaune and grinned. "Now we're a real team. RWBY wasn't a team until Ruby and Weiss had to apologize for both being wrong, and neither were we." She looked back up front. "So now that that's over, we can focus on where we're going next! I'm thinking somewhere with _more_ swords!"

"Yang!" Jaune shouted worriedly.

"Hey, I'm joking. Kind of. I mean, I wouldn't mind a fun adventure like the one we had here. Maybe a little easier, but still a good fight," Yang explained. She nodded. "We could have a bloody good time."

"Ignoring that joke, you should let _me_ choose the next world!" Jaune suggested excitedly. "Somewhere I can maybe work on my skills a bit. After all, you get to drive the ship, right?"

Yang glared at him, and Jaune was sure for a moment that he had crossed a line in asking for a single modicum of control. "Well, at least you asked this time. Go ahead, point at one."

Jaune was surprised. "Really?"

"You learned to ask instead of steal, I'll learn to let you choose once in a while. I think we should alternate, how does that sound?" Yang asked, letting go of the ship's controls and holding her hand out to Jaune.

He blinked in surprise, then took her hand. "Uh, deal!" He let go and looked out of the ship's viewport at the worlds surrounding them. "How about... that one?"

"Bridge to Aincrad? Really? That doesn't _sound_ dangerous," Yang muttered sullenly. She turned puppy dog eyes on Jaune. "Please not there?"

"Oh, no. You get to choose next, I get to choose now. I choose Bridge to Aincrad," he said, resolute against the woman's begging. "So we're going there."

Yang's puppy dog eyes turned into an angry glare. She stared at Jaune for a few minutes before sighing and moving to drive the ship. "Fine. Fine! We're going to the world you chose, you jerk. But the moment we get a lead on my mom's Nobody or this other Keyblade Wielder, we're following that trail. After all, one will probably lead to the other."

Jaune shrugged. "Again, until then -"

"Bridge to Aincrad, I get it!" Yang glared out the viewport, an evil urge growing in the pit of her Heart until it could no longer be resisted. She would have some small vengeance here and now. "Punching it." Then she put her foot down and the ship launched forward despite Jaune's protests of pain. "Remember not to throw up, Vomit Boy!"


	5. Mutual Hatred

**AN: Hey, good to say hi. Fourth of July is coming up and, my traffic stats say not all of you are American, but I am, so I'm gonna go with Happy 4** **th** **. Yeah.**

 **Anyways, I really hope these next two chapters are fun.** ** _SAO: Abridged_** **is one of those shows me and my friends watch all the time. That inevitable second season cannot come fast enough. I hope I capture Kirito-Abridged and his tremendous a-holeishness well, and especially that you all enjoy it.**

 **Finally, I'm glad that the last chapter's notification e-mail went through. I dunno what happened with the chapter before that.**

 **Responses!**

 **To Ssjzohan: Thanks!**

 **To Chretner/cturner971: I'm happy you liked the** ** _Bleach_** **world. I hope the fact that this next world is** ** _SAO Abridged_** **instead of** ** _SAO_** **isn't a problem. I hope you enjoy it anyways!**

 **To commandosquirrel: Well, that is the plan. Jaune's not the same as Sora in this story, and I'm not going to just write the same story over again.**

 **To HelpSomeone: I love Kirito-Abridged, too. I'm going to try to make him as close to abridgon as possible, even when things that don't happen in the show are going on. I had fun writing his interactions, especially with Jaune.**

 **To Gojosin: Yeah, Jaune as he's trying to be now will never be at the same level he was. I'm happy that I'm writing the brief spurts of power well, and I hope I keep writing it well. Jaune's worried about it, so he'll talk about it with Sora, and the Cloak is going to play a big part, too.**

 **To G3r1k: Thanks! This is definitely the Abridged world, and I took your suggestion into account. I hope I did it well!**

 _ **Chapter 5: Mutual Hatred**_

Jaune and Yang wandered the small city side by side, the two of them growing ever more confused by the world around them. Everywhere they looked, people were walking around the small city. Some had green crystals hovering above their heads while some had nothing at all. Interestingly enough, the people who didn't have one of those crystals had far fewer weapons, in some cases walking around without any. Meanwhile, the green crystals were warriors, all dressed in similar blue, black, pink shirts beneath gray-silver armor with various weapons strapped across their backs. "Well, you wanted more swords," Jaune remarked quietly to Yang beside him.

The blonde woman grinned. "Good, I get to use all the material you weren't there for in Soul Society," she said, half-joking. She looked around at all of the people milling about around them, trading insults and making jokes. Mostly insulting each other. "So, all these weapons must mean there's some sort of monsters here other than the Heartless."

"Good. I said I need to work on fighting," Jaune said, half bitter about the fact he had lost so much of his earlier skill. On the other hand, he was more than willing to work at regaining it, and he had tapped into that knowledge a few times during his fights in the Soul Society. He'd even managed to help beat Byakuya using that power... not that he knew how he'd tapped into it, really. He grimaced. "Though... I have no idea where we should go."

The two blondes began to look around again, trying to find out if anyone knew what they were doing. Most of the people were wandering around aimlessly, moving in a dozen streams in every direction. And all of them looked terrified, like they knew they would soon die. "Okay, I'm getting a pretty bad vibe from this place," Yang muttered as even she got the chills from the dead eyed stares around them. She knew what giving up looked like from personal experience, and this was even worse. Eventually, however, her gaze fell on a figure who didn't have that look on his face. In fact, this person almost looked... bored by the people around him and their terror. No, more pissed off and apathetic to their worry.

He had deep black hair that partially obscured his features, a strand running down his nose between his two gray-black eyes. He was scowling at the air, growing increasingly annoyed by something. "We could ask him," Yang suggested.

Jaune's eyes followed hers to the dark haired, confident looking kid. "Oh, wow. What brilliant insight; it's so deep it loops right back around to being stupid," the dark man with a high pitched, almost feminine sounding voice ranted at the sky.

"Wait, what was that" the kid shouted at the sky, his voice between confused and angry.

The conversation continued, and no one was looking at him weird. "What gods? What are you talking about? It's all bullshit metaphors with you!"

"Are you... sure?" Jaune muttered out of the corner of his mouth. "He seems... angry and unbalanced."

"Narrator off..! Dick." A purple hexagon appeared above his head, adorned with black words stating 'Narrator off.' He shook his head and began to walk with a small, counter stream of green crystals towards the other side of the small town.

"Or just angry," Yang remarked. She traded a confused look with Jaune. "Hey, you chose this place." Then she walked off, following the black clad swordsman.

"Something I regret more and more," he noted under his breath before doing as expected and following her. He weaved uncomfortably through the crowd, apologizing for running into them while Yang simply walked through them, and they moved around her. Jaune felt a pang of jealousy that she was such a formidable presence whereas he was... not. As if to prove his point, he was nearly barreled over by a man with really spiky brown hair reminiscent of a mace . He had a large sword strapped across his back and was ranting about 'Beta Testers.'

Jaune raised one eyebrow. Beta Testers? Like in a video game? It would certainly explain some things, like the green crystals over everyone's heads and the fact that one or two voices would keep screaming at the sky, "WE MUST SAVE MY FAMILY!" Every time this earned the response of "Godammit, Gary!"

He looked above Yang, finally noticing she, too, had a crystal floating above her head. "Wow, do we miss things easily," Jaune muttered to himself. He began to move faster and pushed through the crowd, slowly gaining on Yang. "Yang! Yang!"

The woman stopped and turned around. "What, were you getting lost?" she asked from behind a smirk.

"No! Yang... Look, I think this world is a v -"

"Wow, you two look ready for a fight," A desperate, scared voice shouted. Jaune groaned at the interruption and turned to look at the man who had spoken. He was one of the green crystal humans, a blue haired man dressed in a similarly colored, lop sided tunic adorned with brown armor. He was a few inches shorter than Yang with a cocky grin on his face, and had a sword strapped to his hip with a shield across his back. "Good, we need all the help we can – I mean, you're here for the strategy meeting?"

Yang and Jaune shared a look and looked around quickly for the dark haired kid, who they seemed to have lost. _Great... Well, maybe we can learn_ something _from this._ "Uh, yeah?" Jaune muttered, after Yang shrugged and decided it was up to him. He was the one Oz had made a team leader what felt like a lifetime ago, after all. Strategy was his thing – punching that strategy into existence was hers.

The blue haired man let out a sigh of relief that he tried and failed to play off. "Uh, then head down and get ready. We'll be starting soon," he said, moving aside and gesturing for them to enter what looked to be an old-style amphitheatre. They walked past him and looked around for a place to sit.

"Hey!" Yang shouted. She grabbed hold of Jaune's shoulder and tore him towards a seat, causing him to stumble and nearly fall onto his face before she plopped him down next to her and... The dark haired kid.

"Oh, good... My stalkers," the dark haired kid muttered, glancing over at Yang and Jaune. His chin was resting on his palm, which only served to magnify the bored, arrogant look in his eyes. "What do you want, besides staring at me with those dumb looks on your faces."

"Charming," Yang muttered.

The kid shrugged and looked away from them. "I try."

Jaune grabbed Yang's shoulder before she could retort and say something that would start a real argument. "Look, we're just trying to, er, that is... Do you know where we are?"

The kid looked over and began to laugh mockingly, his hand falling from his chin. Everyone glanced their way when the harsh, shrill laughter began. Everyone began to scoot away from the three at the epicenter. "Wow, I'd heard the stereotype, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Dumb and Dumber blondes. You could star in a documentary and nobody could tell the difference from the movie," he mocked through his laughter.

"And I'm surprised you aren't always bleeding from those edges you keep lording," Yang mocked back, cutting off the other person's laughter.

Jaune was surprised that the kid hadn't gotten angry at that retort. He just continued the cycle of mocking. "Wow, looks like I was right. Your boyfriend is _your_ cheerleader."

Yang looked over at Jaune. "Yeah, he is," she said with a shrug.

"Yang..." Jaune muttered, growing annoyed that this kept going on. He sighed and looked over at the boy again, shoving down his anger with the man. "Look, can you please just help us?"

"Helping my stalkers. That sounds like a _great_ idea," the kid muttered. He looked away from them and stared hard at the amphitheatre again before placing his chin on his hand. "If you aren't one of the 2000 morons who have died this month you must be unbelievably lucky idiots."

Yang looked at Jaune. "Yeah, he is," she said with yet another shrug.

"Yang!" Jaune hissed through the woman's and – more surprisingly – the dark haired boy's snickering. He froze. "Did you say 2000 people have -"

"Okay, hey everyone! Thanks for coming to our little pow-wow!" the blue haired guy began, smiling as he tried to attract the attention of everyone sitting in the amphitheatre. Jaune glanced towards the dark haired boy and noticed he was listening more intently than usual, so the Keyblade Wielder decided to do the same. "Now, I know you all may be discouraged by the fact that over 2000 people have died this month."

Jaune couldn't believe that fact was now confirmed. "Two thousand people are dead!" Jaune shouted in surprise and sadness, drawing an annoyed glare from his and Yang's new... 'friend.'

"Maybe he'd have understood if I'd tattooed it to his head," the younger boy muttered. He leaned back and sighed to himself.

The blue haired man who had been so happy to see them caught sight of Jaune and his smile became tighter and less real. He paused and waited for an embarrassed Jaune to sit back down before continuing. "And I know you're all down because we haven't even cleared the first floor ye -"

This drew cries of surprise and anguish from the others in the crowd, Jaune thankfully not being the one to cry out this time. "Good job, Jaune, you can learn from your mistakes. Don't shout out things people just said!" Yang said, shoving her elbow into Jaune's side.

"Okay, maybe you aren't too bad," the dark haired boy said of Yang, only half-interested.

"You guys do know there are a hundred floors, right?" the blue haired man at the center asked, growing ever more dismayed by the growing idiocy of his peers. He looked around, trying to get everyone back on track.

"I thought we were almost done..!"

Jaune grimaced at that statement and realized he – someone from another world – may actually be one of the people more on top of things than anyone around him, barring blue hair and black hair, maybe. Everyone was dressed the same – that was the norm for early game MMOs, not late game when everyone had specialized somehow and had armor, emblems, weapons, and more drops to reflect those specializations. He was never the one who knew the most! That was probably bad news.

"Jeez, I'm just making things worse..." the blue haired man muttered.

He began to speak again, but was drowned out when Yang leaned in close to Jaune. "Jaune... this all seems weird. Why are they acting like this is a video game?"

"Jesus, never mind. You're Dumber, he's Dumb," the boy mocked now. He leveled his glare on the two blondes, growing ever more disgusted with them as time went on. "Of course it's a video game! You _bought_ SAO for Christ's sake!"

"Sh-she meant, why are they treating it like it's a game when it's life or death?" Jaune muttered, having picked up that something had gone wrong with the game world. People don't just die playing an MMO. This was reminding him a bit too much of that story Sora had told them about Tron and the Grid.

"Oh, dammit, she's a Role-Player? Seriously, your prospects are getting dimmer by the second, Dumb and Dumber." The kid shook his head and opened his mouth to continue the mocking, He stared at them for a while. "I bet your avatars changed from the base models after Kayaba's mirror thing – you don't look like you could figure out all those sliders."

"Beta testers?" a familiar voice shouted.

Jaune groaned. "This guy again?" he grumbled, looking over his shoulder at the spiky haired sword wielder who had been ranting earlier.

Apparently, everyone knew about the guy, as the man at the center of the amphitheatre growled with frustration. "Oh, goddamit!" His voice turned said, almost broken by every interruption that had been piling up. "Kibao, what do you want?"

"Beta Testers are the reason we're stuck in this game!" Kibao shouted angrily. "And the reason all those people died!"

"Well, somebody needs to interrupt this train of thought," Yang said, already taking the responsibility upon herself. Jaune sighed when a massive explosion of hair hit him in the side of the head, wind ruffling his hair and signifying that Yang had just leaped down to the center of the theater.

"How did she..?" Jaune ignored the dark haired boy and shook his head. Yang, already picking a fight after five seconds.

"Oh my god, a hot girl!" someone within the crowd shouted, voice cracking as he did, when Yang landed heavily behind Kibao and turned around. There was a sharp intake of breath as they realized that, yes, this _was_ a hot girl. Soon, almost everyone was on their feet, cheering.

She kissed to the crowd. "You got that right," she said, waving to her now cheering, adoring audience. She looked down at Kibao, who was looking increasingly scared of the blonde, red eyed woman. "Please, please... Don't stop this witch hunt because of me."

"Oh, so now it's charge the stage time," the man with the shield growled, growing disappointed with how he was progressively losing control of the situation. "Why doesn't anyone else just walk up here!?"

"Well, if you insist," a deep voice said, and a tall, dark skinned man walked towards them.

He shouted in exasperation, "I was being sarcastic, whoever you are!"

The tall man stopped in front of Kibao and stood intimidatingly over him, catching the antagonistic jerk between two tall, scary warriors. "I am the Mountain Slayer, Thunder Lion, the Chocolate Ax." He stopped speaking for a moment and pointed down at Kibao's face, placing one huge index finger in front of the man's eye. "But you, dumbass? You may call me... Tiffany." The name appeared above his head and Kibao backed away slightly, completely unsure of what to do next.

The man next to Jaune snickered. "I bet his original avatar was a three foot tall lolli," he muttered under his breath and forcing Jaune to imagine Tiffany's face on a short, creepy looking little girl. He shivered.

"Masculine," Yang said, earning an annoyed glare from Tiffany.

"Shouldn't be, it's a woman's name," he responded bluntly.

"I'm not sure what to say to either of you," Kibao muttered, glancing between Yang and Tiffany with growing fear, annoyance, and frustration.

"Good then shut the fuck up" The tall man turned around to the crowd, pulling a small brown notebook from his inventory. "Does everyone here have this book in their inventory? It's full of tips and strategies on how to survive the game, put together by Beta Testers."

Jaune began to answer 'No,' but stopped when he caught the annoyed glare on his neighbor's face. Thankfully, a large group of people said no. Chocolate Ax's eyes widened at that. "Wh- 2000 people are dead!"

"What!?"the crowd shouted. Tiffany just stared back in shock and disgust, unable to comprehend how they had forgotten what was being talked about five seconds earlier.

The dark kid beside Jaune shook his head. "Sadly, this is still going better than I'd hoped." He caught Jaune's look and narrowed his eyes. "What? I'm not talking to you!"

Kibao suddenly regained his composure, anger flashing behind his eyes. "Everyone read it, but it doesn't even mention those weird monsters that are showing up. Their levels are too high and they've killed half the people here!" He pointed out at the crowd and they began looking at one another, unsure who to trust. "Isn't that right, Jesus?"

"It's pronounced Hey-zeus, and I don't know you," Jesus remarked dryly.

"Those people died because they were too stupid to avoid monsters with _question marks_ instead of a level designator!" Thunder Lion pointed out. He looked Kibao up and down. "Which begs the question, how is your dumb ass alive?" He then turned away, ignoring the useless, ranting man he was embarassing.

"I, gah..." Kibao looked as if he wanted to snap back at Tiffany, but was too scared to do anything about it. He growled, Darkness swirling around his shoulders. "Shut up!" He pulled his sword from his back and lashed out, trying to catch Chocolate Ax unawares. His sword whistled towards Tiffany's neck and a collective gasp filled the air. Would this be the first official murder in SAO?

But Ember Celica was quick to activate, and Yang was even quicker to move. She caught the sword on her bracer and glared at the man who was being enveloped by a shroud of darkness more and more with each passing moment. The sword flashed backwards, giving Yang time to slam her shoulder into his chest and send him skidding away. "Get off the stage," she demanded simply of Tiffany and the blue haired man.

"I can fight my own battles, Goldilocks," Chocolate Ax said, reaching back to grab the... ax on his back.

"Maybe," she said, tossing him a grin. "But I've already got dibs." Then she raised her fists again and charged Kibao.

"What a woman!" the same voice cracking individual cried out from within the crowd.

Yang didn't really hear this, as she was in full on 'battle mode.' She was having a hard time dodging the increasingly erratic and increasingly fast attacks that the man was unleashing. "Look, Spike, I mean this with all due offense... you're not very good at this fighting thing," she said as she blocked another heavy blow with her left bracer. The blade slammed into her arm and she swore she could feel it almost rattle her arm. Still, that wasn't going to make her stop mocking this guy. She brought her robotic fist around and tore the blade out of Kibao's hands, then lashed out with a front kick that forced him to double over.

"What the hell is happening? Is he using some sort of item to make that aura?" the edgelord sitting beside Jaune asked. He narrowed his eyes and his voice became a low, angry growl. "We wants it..."

"Kibao, huh? That sounds like the noise my fist'll make when I punch you in the face," Yang pointed out, jumping into the air and raising her clasped fists above her head. She came down, slamming them into Kibao's face, an almost echoing 'KI-BAO!' echoing through the amphitheatre. His face hit the ground and a purple hexagon appeared above him below a green bar that rapidly shrank into a thin, red line. The hexagon read "2000 Newtons, new record!"

Again: "What a woman!"

"Are we done here?" Tiffany inquired, moving up to stand beside Yang, whose eyes had returned to their normal lilac, and the now unconscious Kibao.

"Yeah... wasn't even a good fight," Yang said, disappointed.

"Okay, I get why you're her cheerleader, Blondie," the dark haired boy said, truly impressed. His voice turned saccharine and cruel. "Does she keep little old you safe from all the scary monsters?"

"I'm not -" Jaune sighed and glared at the man sitting beside him

"Now, as Mr. Thunder Chocolate was saying," the blue haired man said, picking up where he left off as if nothing had happened.

"Thunder _Lion,"_ Thunder Lion hissed under his breath. "Thunder Lion, is it so hard?"

"This guide book is full of strategies on how to fight the first boss, Ilfang." He opened his book and began to flip through it. "Ahem. 'As you enter the first boss room, he's gonna send wave after wave of disposable minions after you... You should... Respond in kind?' Uh, let's skip ahead... 'Once his health goes into the red, he'll enter his second stage and you should... Final Solution?' Jesus, who wrote this?"

Jaune looked over to see his neighbor laughing under his breath, though it threatened to spill out completely. Jaune was seriously starting to doubt asking this... "human" for anything.

"Okay, look, just... just group up. We'll figure something out on the way," the blue haired man muttered, immediately moving off to find his own group.

Yang caught Jaune's eye and jerked her head to the side. He raised a confused eyebrow and she did it again. Finally, he turned and saw an empty space beside him. He turned back to shrug at her before mentally slapping himself. "Where'd he go?" he growled, looking around frantically. Again, Yang jerked her head to the side and began to walk into the crowd. Jaune got up and followed, as Yang seemed to have some idea of where to go.

"And what about you? Why haven't you joined the others?" a young woman in a burgundy cloak obscuring her face and armor asked their new friend.

"Lots of reasons," he replied with a shrug. His voice became incredibly caustic and condescending. "Mostly because they're a lot of mouth-breathing neckbeards who think LMAO is how French people laugh."

Jaune laughed, realizing he could piss the guy off. He was enjoying this feeling, not caring what this guy thought. That he could make the jerk angry, even a little. If it hadn't felt so good, he might have been a little worried. "That's so l-mao," he said.

"I'll kill whoever –" the dark haired man snapped before whirling around on Jaune and Yang. His shoulders sagged and he shook his head in annoyance. "Oh, you two again. Great."

"So you do have a party," the girl pointed out dryly.

"A party?" he asked, turning back to her. "No, Dumb and Dumber here are my _stalkers_ , not my NPC party followers. Though between how you can't open the menu, she's a Role-Player, and he's her cheerleader... you might as well all be."

Jaune scoffed at the insulting insinuation he was worthless, anger rising in his gut. This guy had done nothing but act like an ass since they met him, so where did he get off acting superior? Jaune shook his head and joked back, "Wow, I haven't seen overcompensation this bad since Cardin Winchester." Jaune paused and wondered where that had come from. He wasn't usually that biting with how he spoke to people; maybe Yang's attitude was rubbing off on him. Jaune dismissed these thoughts and simply glared at the boy. "And I don't think his problem was as small as yours."

"Wow, an insult from the cheerleader. I'm sure you're -"

Yang stepped between them, surprised she had to be the calm one. She made a mental note to talk to Jaune about ths later when they were alone. "Look, it's simple. You need to party up with more than one person, and we're available. Can we just try to kill each other later?" Yang inquired.

"Ah, dammit." Yang turned around to see that almost every member of the crowd had been waiting in line to try and ask for her to party up with them.

"Well, if taking you on annoys them, I'm all for it," the boy responded with a grin. He swiped his left hand in front of him and opened a list of names. "So... Asuna, Yang, and... Jaune? Jaune? Sounds like a girl's name to me."

Jaune fought off the growing urge to point out that, with the other boy's voice, that meant they almost had three girls.

"Charming... Kirito?" Yang asked, wondering if she'd said it right.

"I try," Kirito responded with a shrug. He frowned and stared off into space. "What the hell are those!?"

"What the hell are what?" Jaune growled. He was quite done with this guy, a far cry from the amicable Ichigo or any of his other friends from back home. Jaune noticed that the anger was building up more and more, just as it had back in Soul Society and tried to stomp it down again, balling it up and ignoring it. He took a breath. "What are what?"

"Those blue bars beneath your health bars, obviously you... You... What the hell kind of skills do you have to have a second bar? What does it even do? This isn't allowed by the rules of the game!"

"Where are these health bar -"

Kirito stood up and placed his hand over Yang's mouth. "Please. Stop talking. If you don't, I might just kill you," he said, his voice barely a hoarse whisper. His pupils had basically disappeared, shrinking down just as his mental state began to deteriorate. He pointed up. "Look right here and you'll see all of our _goddamn health bars!"_

Yang looked up, ignoring Kirito's screaming – which was attracting everyone's attention – about how there were no women in this game that could figure out the menu. Yang noticed that there were four and wondered how she'd missed these before. Two of them, those at the bottom, were labeled Kirito and Asuna. They both were simple green bars, both filled to the brim. Unlike those, however, the top two – hers and Jaune's – had a secondary, thin line of blue beneath it. "Magic..." they both muttered, clearly understanding what it was from the many hours of video games both had played.

"Excuse me?" Asuna asked, surging to her feet. "SAO doesn't have magic, it's the draw. And, now that I think about it, one of the shittiest draws for a fantasy RPG. Why don't we have magic?"

"I'll take no magic if it means no goddamn fairies with their prissy wings and stupid elf ears," Kirito muttered. He shut his eyes and shivered in rage. "And some stupid race war. Ugh, I'm almost glad that, after this dumpster fire of a launch title, VRMMO's are never going to get funded again."

"... Right," Yang said simply. She shrugged and grabbed everyone by the shoulders. "Now, let's go get acquainted... Team JAYK! No, no... I can come up with better!" Then she began to drag the group out of the city and towards the hunting grounds for what was apparently this game's level 1 monsters.

Yang didn't even notice the tall, red haired woman with a face almost identical to Yang's following them from a distance. The crystal-less woman frowned as she walked, and her grip tightened on her blade. "Is it fate or chance that places you on my path, I wonder?" Then she turned down an empty street, disappearing into a black portal so the Nobody could move undetected in the same direction as her daughter. Morrigan reappeared in a forest a few miles outside of the town and jumped into a tree. "Come to me, Weakness, so I may overcome you."

 _ **S M H S**_

The man in the cloak walked through the crowded city, ignoring the bustling crowds and the smell of food wafting around. He wasn't back here to have fun, he was back here to finally read the scroll he had received in his trade with Sosuke Aizen. He moved effortlessly through the crowd, his mere presence forcing them to part around him. His posture, his behavior _demanded_ that they move around him. He kept his hands in his pockets, one wrapped tight around the yet to be opened scroll. He needed to open that scroll as soon as possible; the knowledge within was paramount to his success.

Despite the urgency of these matter at hand, the man could not help but stop when he passed a food stand on a nearby corner, one of the advertised brands catching his eye. He turned and walked towards the stand, the flow of people around him altering with his new direction. He stopped in front of the stand and the man operating it turned to him with a smile. "What'll it be?"

"Pumpkin Pete Ice Cream Sandwich," the cloak replied simply, pulling out a card of Lien before the price could be given. He tossed it forward and took the sandwich, then peeled it open and turned to leave in one move."Keep the change." He raised the ice cream between two slabs of marshmallow encrusted flakes to his mouth and took a bite. He stopped moving for a moment and appreciated the many flavors interacting. "Mmmm..." He shook his head a moment later, realizing he had taken too much time. He began to move again, taking small bites as he went. He had to admit, he missed the small things sometimes.

He opened the door to his apartment building a few minutes later and tossed the wrapper to his snack in his trash. He kept his jacket on despite the fact he was 'home' now, though he did lower his hood and sit down at the table. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the scroll, placing it on the table. The man held his hand out and summoned his Keyblade to place beside it as he felt more comfortable knowing that the weapon was nearby.

The man in the black coat froze before unwrapping the scroll. This was it – this was what he was looking for. He ran a hand through his hair and held in a giddy laugh. It was exciting to know that, after this, he only had a list to complete before he got what he wanted. Before he _finally_ got what he wanted. He reached out and slowly began to unfurl the scroll, a sharp intake of breath occurring as he broke the seal holding it shut. He began to hold his breath as if he were afraid that the slightest provocation would make it disappear from the table.

He exhaled the air and the giddy feeling disappeared as soon as he could read the list. The man laughed, exasperated, and began to read the list aloud to himself. "The heart of an unborn World? Something that can reshape reality? Where am I going to find an item that creates true Darkness in a Heart or a nugget of Darkness made corporeal?" His eyes settled on the final item and he groaned angrily. "A True Key..? Dammit, that must mean one of Salem's 'Successes.' A Kingdom Key." He leaned back and cast a glance at his own Keyblade, a 'failure.' The first. A dark, twisted Keyblade that contained much power, but not the same amount that a Kingdom Key would. Those were the Gold standard for Keyblades.

He frowned. Gold. There was a Golden Keyblade, a Kingdom Key. He remembered that much. The man nodded and reached out for his Keyblade to tap on the handle, the beat matching the rhythm of his thoughts. The Kingdom Key D, a Keyblade locked in the Realm of Darkness. Could it have been brought to the future by the rebirth of the Realm of Darkness through the Journal? He supposed it was possible, and definitely worth the trouble of finding out. If it was there, he could use the Kingdom Key D to replace his own weapon indefinitely. And if not... he could figure out how to get Sora or Jaune to help him. It wouldn't be too difficult, all things considered. He wouldn't be opposed to a quid pro quo, either. Neither person would ask for too much.

The man stood up and walked to the window, looking out over the city at the newly rebuilt emerald towers on the cliff overlooking everything. The sunlight was reflecting off of the buildings, creating a brilliant green glare. School would be starting up in Beacon Academy soon, a result of the efforts Sora, Ruby, and their allies had put forth in defeating Salem. Since her defeat, Vale – and indeed all of Remnant – had enjoyed an amicable peace that had been unheard of in the Four Kingdoms' histories. Still, the Dark undercurrent present within the world remained. Muted, yes, but it remained.

The man turned his mental energies back to the list. The fact that he had obtained these from Aizen implied that these items were obtainable in the wider World, perhaps even in his world alone. It wouldn't be smart to focus that heavily on one world, however. To amass the items would likely result in multiple betrayals if he focused on one world – clashing with Aizen, then the Shinigami, then Aizen again. It would become too difficult. Therefore, it was a better idea to look for many worlds, each with one, maybe two items from the list. It would take time to find the world with these, but he was sure the Keyblade would lead him where his Heart desired.

The Keyblade disappeared in a crackling cloud of black and white, dismissed by its master. He pulled his hood back up and walked to the center of the largest room, holding up a hand cloaked in Darkness. A column of inky black appeared in front of him, a portal to another world. He supposed that it was about time he begin looking for the items on that list; there was a whole new universe to explore, after all. He stepped into the portal and allowed it to slide shut behind him.

 _ **S M H S**_

Akihiko Kayaba was not a very happy man. Not very happy at all. In the past month, two thousand more aimless, moronic, goddamn idiots had kicked the bucket. Two. Thousand. Two thousand people had died on the _first level!_ He honestly felt that was an indictment of the human species that this had happened, and that wasn't even getting into the fact that half those idiots had died from standing in the middle of fire hazards in the environment. When he'd heard that, he'd made a few quick changes to the Narrator Mode that would ensure all of the lemmings following each other off the cliff to death would at least know _someone_ was disappointed in them.

Kayaba rubbed the bridge of his nose, having uplugged from his own VRMMO some time ago in order to patch a few crippling bugs that would kill many more of those fu – idiots. He knew for a fact that everything going on so far was only the beginning. They had yet to clear floor one, and it was partially because no one with even a modicum of intelligence had decided to coordinate the idiots into a single sword to be wielded against the Bosses. Ugh, if that blue haired shmuck couldn't handle this first boss without kicking the bucket, he might as well do it himself.

Kayaba shuddered at the thought. It would take a true masochist to lead a guild comprised of the players of his game.

Kayaba began to walk back to the NerveGear controller he had plugged in to his bunker and linked to the net through an ever shifting series of proxy network connections. He had to check in on the new updates, maybe see how the first Raid Party was holding up. It – He froze and turned as his computer began to beep excitedly. He frowned and walked towards the machine, surprised that this had happened. He'd programmed in an alarm for if someone inserted themselves into his game, hacking through layers of firewalls, pirating a copy of the game – which must not have been easy considering that the game was a deathtrap now – and deciding to plug themselves into the lovechild of _Tron_ and _Scanners_. What kind of idiot would do that?

He sat down and began to type commands into his computer, looking for the information regarding the intruders to the game. The system scanned through the player list, something that would take quite some time on his less than ideal fugitive setup. Still, he elected to wait. It was a necessity, and a nice distraction from the deaths that were occurring. This was the first – and hopefully _only_ – time that the population of SAO had increased rather than decreased.

It took upwards of an hour, but the program finally terminated and two names popped up. "Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao Long. Weird names for a pair of new players. Items... Wait, I don't remember coding in these weapons!" Kayaba surged to his feet and opened another window, searching through the list of weapons and armor he had placed into his life's work. "Subset bracers. Ember Celica... No match. Keyblade subset? I know I didn't put that in. Square wouldn't give me the rights to put even one in the entire game! Not with Kingdom Hearts 3 coming out next year, 2023. Probably."

Kayaba's frown deepened before he shut the window and moved through the files until he found what he was looking for, an old file that formed the source code framework for SAO from the ground up. The World Seed was still there, with no signs of tampering or having been copied at all. He did another more in depth check, but again there was no example of meddling. Kayaba sat down and scratched his chin, growing ever more confused. This... It... How the hell could this happen? The game was built to have rules! True, they were buggy, odd, broken rules that would occasionally frag themselves and turn someone's skin inside out, but they were rules. Weapons that did not exist in his game appearing so soon after those... monsters that had never existed in his game? If he believed any kind of higher power cared about his game he'd say that it almost seemed planned instead of coincidence. Well, maybe the Devil cared about his game. After all it had killed so many people.

Kayaba leaned back in his chair, briefly wondering what he should do. He could kick them out of the game, but that would probably kill these two attractive twenty-somethings. Of course, anyone stupid enough to make it into the game already known worldwide for killing anyone who failed its roguelike rules was probably stupid enough to die somewhere down the road. If he did it now, all he'd be doing is saving time. His fingers slowly lowered to the keyboard, typing in the commands that would be needed to give the two a death more merciful than Sheeptar the Sheep King would give them.

As he reached the end of the sequence, however, he stopped. Something told him it would be better if he did something else. He paused his prior work and began to bring up a video rendering of what the two kids were doing in his game.

The two – blondes, of course – were fighting alongside other players in the game, destroying goblins in a small forest with a miniboss that would require some good cannon fodder. The kid with the Keyblade, Jaune, was slashing through monsters beside... Kirito? They both looked incredibly annoyed with each others' company, leaving Kayaba wondering which person was at fault for that. Elsewhere in the forest, but not too far off, Yang was smashing goblins with her bare hands beside a rapier wielding girl in a cloak. The girl in the hood was pretty good at the fighting itself, but kept freaking out whenever anything happened in the game, as if she didn't understand the core concepts of a video game, much less the mountain of algorithms he'd created.

Kayaba bit his cheek. If they killed any more of these things, they'd activate the mini boss he'd created for that region. Well, if it still existed. Those monsters had begun replacing his encoded enemies, minibosses more than others. He had toured a few of the higher level floors and found almost half of his minbosses deleted and replaced by the creatures. Thankfully, his security on the Boss rooms had kept any of them from being altered so far, but he didn't expect that to keep. He'd have to upgrade security on everything, especially the boss rooms. If one of those got replaced with whatever those things were, he'd probably end up seeing the entire population of the game die after a few seconds. Whatever these glitches were, that would only make it worse – every player killed by one of those creatures created another monster. Which meant more deaths, more monsters, etcetera, etcetera, on and on. He'd spent the last week working on a permanent patch that would create a skill so they could identify these things' levels on sight. He was having a little bit of trouble.

The miniboss triggered. Kayaba sighed and brought up a visual on that creature, soon finding that this miniboss had, indeed, been one of those replaced with the monsters he hadn't coded. The '?' symbol appeared instead of a level indicator beside a large health bar. The creature had a large shield with a dog head on it and was dressed in silvery armor. It looked nothing like the goblin lord he'd created and more like one of the Heartless from Square's old game.

Welp, four more to the dead pile. Unless they weren't as stupid as they looked. "Fly you fools," Kayaba muttered at the screen, knowing they wouldn't. The creature began to lumber through the forest, towards the two boys. He sat back n his chair; maybe they would at least give him a show.

 _ **S M H S**_

Morrigan watched from her perch within the trees as her Weakness and another girl raised their weapons again. "Did you hear that?" the other girl asked, the danger having sharpened her usually confused nature into a focused edge. Morrigan shifted her feet and shut her eyes to listen to the creature approaching in the darkness. She recognized its gait, a Heartless she had encountered in the past.

Her eyes slid open and refocused on the two young women. She dashed across the clearing after them, landing silently in another tree. The two young women had entered the path of the creature, though they had yet to encounter it. It was only a matter of time, of course, especially with the direction they were moving. Morrigan jumped to another tree, then another, moving silently until she had found what she was looking for. The two boys were glaring at one another, obviously having found their personalities at odds with one another. "Wow, your sword skills are almost as underwhelming as your intelligence," the one with the dark hair said with a smirk.

Jaune snarled and shot back, "And your jokes are nowhere near as insulting as your shrill voice, Kirito."

"O-oh, some attitude, eh?" Kirito asked, actually impressed by this turn of events. "Keep working and in a few years you might be able to insult a depressed, five year old girl."

"A few years? So, you'll still have the voice of a depressed, five year old girl. Maybe you'll be the one I insult," Jaune cut back with a snarl.

Kirito stopped moving, his right eye twitching. "I... You... What?" His hand drifted up to the sword strapped across his back and a maniacal, broken laugh began to echo from his mouth through the forest. "I'm gonna kill you for that one..."

"Look, it didn't even take me years to insult a depressed, five year old girl!" Jaune growled, summoning the Keyblade to his hand. He wasn't going to just sit there and let this squeaky voiced jerk treat him like garbage. Jaune's friends could make jokes because he deserved it from them – not that any except Yang ever would – but not from this Kirito idiot.

"I'll kill -"

The two turned, broken out of their mutual hatred by the sound of an explosion echoing from deeper in the forest. A loud roar followed. "That's where the girls were," Jaune muttered before taking off.

"Hey, you're charging _towards_ the monster noise? You're dumber than I thought!" Kirito snapped. He had decided not to budge; he wasn't going to die for these idiots. Yeah, then... He sighed, realizing that if they died he didn't have a party for the Floor Boss. "And apparently, so am I." He sprinted after Jaune and drew his sword, silently cursing the fact he had to take care of three idiots for his own benefit.

Morrigan followed in the trees.

Jaune rounded a tree a few moments later, the roar having come from a different location this time. As soon as he entered the clearing, however, he was hit by something large and incredibly yellow. He slammed into a tree with his new passenger and groaned in pain. "Yang, get off of me," Jaune groaned from beneath the brawler.

"Jaune? Good, I was wondering when you'd get here," she said with a grin. She pushed herself off of him and ruffled his hair. "You don't need to try that hard to get close to me."

"Yang, what's happening here?" Jaune asked, electing to ignore her smirk. He pushed himself up and looked past her to see Asuna deftly dodging the massive shield slamming into the ground. She spun around a fireball that came at her next and stabbed forward, only for the attack to bounce off of the shield. "A Defender Heartless?"

"Oh crap, it's one of the Question Mark things," Kirito muttered as he came into the clearing as well. It – Kirito froze as the Keyblade glowed slightly and the Defender glowed to match. The '?' insignia glitched out for a moment before quickly turning into a '5.' "How – I – What the hell is going on?"

"Level 5? We'll be able to take this guy down easy," Yang said, slamming her fists together.

"These minibosses have killed groups of ten before! What chance do I have?" Kirito asked desperately. He raised his sword in front of him defensively.

Asuna's chin turned towards him. "You mean _we,_ right?"

"No, _me_. Me and the three people I have to keep alive for some reason!" Kirito snapped back in a combination of annoyance and anger.

Jaune narrowed his eyes on the creature, and it too turned to look at him. The Defender ponderously began to move towards him, drawn to both the Keyblade and the Darkness in his Heart. Jaune froze up at the yellow, burning eyes in the face upon the shield. It was drawn to him. "Hey, Vomit Boy, snap out of it." Jaune turned in surprise to look at Yang, who was glaring down at him with an annoyed look on her face. She growled out, "You need to remember something important, Vomit boy: you're the plan guy, I'm the punching girl. Work on the plan!"

Kirito opened his mouth to say something mocking, but was cut off by a glare from Yang. "Right, no jokes. Got it," he muttered. Asuna began to stifle mocking laughter at his fear of Yang.

Jaune thought for a moment. This world's Heartless seemed to have weird, video game style rules to them. Before he'd gotten there, Yang had been having trouble with the Heartless. He was willing to bet that his arrival – or the Keyblade, really, had led to a change in that; now it was the same level as they were, according to the status indicators in the top left of his vision. He guessed this meant they could take it out now. "It's coming after me."

"Why?" Asuna inquired.

"That's not how aggro works!" Kirito agreed.

Jaune ignored them. It would take too long to explain, and Sora and Ozpin wouldn't want him blabbing to everyone about the other worlds. "So I'll distract it while you all you get behind the shield and -"

"Punch the crap out of it," Yang finished. She smiled at Jaune. "You plan and I punch – gotta love a team that just fits, right?" Then she ran off with Asuna and Kirito, the Heartless turning to follow the movement.

"Oh no you don't," Jaune growled. He surged to his feet and charged the Heartless, chanting inwardly, _Don't screw up, don't screw up, don't..._

He slammed his Keyblade into the deceptively fast creature's shield, a reflect wall appearing that forced his weapon to rebound. Still, it did its job. The Heartless whirled back on Jaune and began to twirl the shield, summoning a fireball that flew out at Jaune. He raised the Keyblade to block it and the fire dispersed in the air. Jaune lowered the Keyblade to move in for an attack, only for the shield to smash forward into his chest. He flipped through the air and hit the ground hard, forcing himself to roll to his feet as he slid back. He ran forward as soon as he stopped sliding and rushed the monster. He sidestepped a fireball and locked his Keyblade into the maw of the shield, locking it in place. "Yang, why are you all moving so slow!?"

"What, you can't handle it for five seconds?" Yang flew out of the trees, trailing fire. Her fist slammed into the small of the Defender's back, the force running up its body and into the arm holding the shield. The arm buckled, giving Jaune enough time to throw it to the outside of the creature's body and throw it further off balance.

Next, Kirito and Asuna ran up. Kirito's blade flashed blue and slashed upward through the creature as he passed it from behind. Asuna flipped over it, the tip of her rapier turning a bright green and stabbing through the head of the Defender a dozen times before she landed in front of it and dashed away, a cloud of dust forming at her feet. As she passed, Jaune dragged his Kingdom Key up through the dust. The teeth of the blade cracked the Defender's magical armor, leaving a large hole in the middle of its head. Asuna turned on a dime and sprinted back at the Heartless, jumping onto Jaune's shoulder and lashed out with the rapier. The green tip easily pierced the shadowy flesh of the creature and red shards began to float away from it. A blue flash came around and Kirito's sword moved beneath the rapier to decapitate the creature.

The Heartless stumbled backwards, smoke trailing from its body. Darkness began to rise upwards towards the sky until, eventually, there was nothing left. Kirito swung his blade to his right side and cleanly slid it into its scabbard on his back. "Wow, you earned some good boy points, Mr. Badass!" Asuna said dryly.

Kirito glared at their snickering faces and growled at the girl, "I'm learning that I hate you so much." He looked around at the others, ignoring the large XP bonus he had obtained for helping destroy the monster. " _All_ of you."

"Feeling's mutual," Jaune hissed venomously, wisps of Darkness rising from his fist and going unnoticed by all in their group except Yang in the pitch of the forest. Her face darkened with worry at the tendrils of power and the enmity in the man's voice. "Trust me."

It did not go unnoticed by the one watching them, either. She could easily recall the power the blonde boy had held when his focus had been the Darkness. From what she had observed, however, it seemed that he was trying to stamp down that urge, that call of Darkness that echoed through his Heart. It had monumentally reduced his strength to do that, but that did not lessen the intensity of the Call. Morrigan could remember the call from her former life, and it was consuming. If Morrigan could feel anxiety, she might worry he would give in to that call during a fight. As it was, she could only recognize that he would not give into the call, not while her Weakness was present. That meant she would need to defeat him first, and then move to destroy her Weakness.

A plan made, Morrigan shut her eyes and disappeared into the shadows.


	6. Two Faced

**AN: Hey! Sorry it took so long. I tried to get it out the week after the last chapter, but a lot was going on. My family had tickets to Comic-Con and the week before was really busy as we made the mistake of leaving a few things to the last minute. It was a ton of fun, though, so I think it's understandable that I wasn't writing. The week after was a lot, too. Coming home, spending time with family who couldn't go.**

 **Anyways, thanks for your patience and on to responses:**

 **To ssjzohan: I'm glad you thought that this was good! I don't explicitly have Kirito say he hates Jaune and Yang less, but there are some reference/hints using BallsDeep69's dialogue. It'll definitely be more obvious when we return to Aincrad the second/third time.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: I agree, SAO abridged is amazing. It's the most like an actual tv show and, for as fun as SAO can be, it fixes problems that were present in the original series. The characters somehow end up being complete opposites of their original versions while also being exactly the same. Great writing. Also, thanks. I tried hard to make sure the references were fun and am especially glad you liked the Kayaba bits. That was a lot of fun to write. Finally, I'm touched. I'm glad you are so enthusiastic about this story, so don't worry about the review being long. I love long reviews!**

 **To G3r1k: I love that you think it was done well! I hope that every chapter brings more laughs and more excitement for you.**

 **To CraZramblinGhost: Thanks! I'm happy to spread the great SAO:A further. I got my friends hooked on it at college and getting more people hooked is great. Everyone should watch objectively good TV. Agreed, though. TFS will always hold a special place. I hope that this chapter and how the story plays out will be believable, and I love that the characterization is done well. As for Jaune's power level... He's not necessarily weaker than Yang, he's just not confident and is holding himself back. A Keyblade's power is based on strength of Heart, will, and confidence. Worrying that you'll fall into the Darkness just by looking at it doesn't inspire confidence and strength.**

 **Anyways, to everybody, enjoy and please drop a review!**

 _ **Chapter 6: Two Faced**_

"An hour long break. Well, what's that after a month of twiddling our thumbs?" Kirito grumbled as he sat around with Jaune, Yang, and Asuna. The raid party had successfully complained to Diavel, the blue haired leader of what Kirito had described as 'a group of lemmings looking for a cliff,' for an hour long break after the slow, six hour walk of a mile had tired most of them out. Many people had spent all their in game currency on Cheetos and Mountain Dew programmed into the game as food rather than on upgrading weapons and armor for a life and death battle.

Fortunately for Kirito, and indeed everyone in the raid party who was serious about making it through the game, the hour long break was nearly finished. Some people had spent the time strategizing or learning the skills of those in their parties. Well, really, only two groups had even bothered trying: Thunder Lion's group and... that of our protagonists. The other groups had spent their time in ways that can only politely be deemed as less wise. The aforementioned Mountain Dew and Cheetos was a popular choice, as was trading ever more 'creative' daydreams about trying to talk to Yang. She didn't quite pity them enough to keep herself from shutting them up, but it didn't take long for them to pick up again. They weren't even the worst of it, however. One group had been stuck on the tutorial of Bejewled for the entire break.

"Your complaining isn't doing us any favors, Kirito. Maybe if you were quiet for half a minute we could actually come up with some strategy?" Jaune hissed back at the black haired swordsman. "Or is this whining better?"

"Jaune, at least I can see everyone for what they are. We'd die if we were stupid enough to trust our lives to them. They're lemmings!" Kirito retorted, the venom between the two growing thicker with every trading of words. "Not that fighting beside you is any better."

Yang shut her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She had hoped her conversation about planning and punching would have given Jaune all the hints he needed about calming down. She hated having to be the one with the level head. She _hated_ it! "We all did well against the Defender. Each of us. So there's no point in this whole arguing like the annoying five year olds you are thing you've both got going on. Jaune, what would Sora and Ruby say? Your dad?"

The other blonde's head fell in embarrassment. "I... You're right, Yang."

"Ha! You're such a cheerleader," Kirito stated mean spiritedly.

Jaune felt a flash of anger in his gut before he stamped it down. "Whatever," he snapped. He looked towards Asuna. "What do you think of all this?"

"I haven't played many video games, and even I know that door is a death trap with a party like this one. On the other hand, maybe I'll be able to catch the final hit bonus on the boss." Asuna looked up slightly and revealed a small smile peeking out from beneath her hood. "It's going to be all mine..."

"And how can we keep as many people as possible alive?" Yang asked simply. This world was no fun – she hadn't made a punderful joke since she'd gotten here and it was starting to hurt. "They're on the edge of a cliff here." Edge. Swords. She breathed out as the pressure of puns in her head lessened somewhat. Jeez, even she thought that one was bad.

Kirito scoffed. "Good on you, Dumber. I knew my lemmings metaphor would stick."

"No, I – "

Yang was cut off by the exasperated and rage filled voice of Diavel shouting impatiently at the entire group. "Jesus guys, I didn't really mean an hour!" he snapped. His right eye was twitching slightly as he noticed that the people stuck on Bejeweled's tutorial had not responded and had elected to start the tutorial over. He opened his mouth to scream at them, but only a tired sigh came out. "Screw it, let's just get this over with."

"Well, can't wait for this to go poorly," Kirito mumbled while the group stood up.

Jaune narrowed his eyes. "And if you're wrong?"

"I'm never wrong," Kirito said with a scoff. He put his hand on a chin. "Truly, I should start a foundation to ridicule those less blessed than I with mental capacity."

The doors of the boss room began to slowly drift open behind Diavel, revealing a space of pitch black. He was the first to step through the doors, causing lights to erupt in the small space and bring a smorgasboard of pastel colors and stain glass surfaces. Jaune was almost tempted to say it looked calming, but he knew it wouldn't stay that way for very long. He wasn't wrong, as the enemies of the room appeared mere moments after the lights came on.

They were small, two legged monsters with red flesh peeking out of their steely armor. Plate helmets covered their heads and let two long, red ears dangle out though nothing else. Each carried with them a single mace, the ball of the weapon as large as the creature's heads. The word Kobold appeared above each of their heads, though one instead turned into static and began glitching out until the system put an 'Error: 404' message over it and promptly deleted the creature. Jaune wondered briefly if that was an actual error, or if the Heartless had begun invading the room.

He didn't have long to ponder that question. The monsters were on top of everyone as soon as they crossed the threshold into the boss room, something that quickly sent the raid party scattering into disarray. "This is our highly trained front lines, everybody," Kirito muttered while he spun past a Kobold's attack and ran it through with his sword. He looked around before another creature could lock onto him, searching for the boss. Jaune himself had been worrying, too. Diavel had said after their first meeting that the boss was a large Kobold with an ax and small shield.

It appeared, however, that his worries were pointless. As soon as all of the players were occupied by one or more of the mob Kobolds, the boss fight truly began. Ilfang fell from the ceiling, a large monster though not the largest he had ever seen. The Dragon Grimm still took that cake. Ilfang held a huge ax in its right hand, orange claws gripped tight around the handle. On the other arm was a small shield adorned with numerous tiny knicks and scratches to simulate a battle worn look. The monster's eyes flared a bright red for a moment as it readied for battle, at which point it shrieked out a huge roar of rage.

Surprisingly enough, this moment was exactly what was needed. The players of the raid party froze in fear of the giant creature, giving Diavel enough time to command their attention. "Squads, reassemble and begin with Plan Victory!"

"What?!"

Diavel growled angrily. "Group up and listen to me you idiots!"

"Good luck with that one," Kirito scoffed as he bisected another Kobold.

Still, they... sort of did as they were told. Halfway at least. "Group up and hit it till it dies!" one of the many players screamed. This was met with a roar of approval as the groups reformed like they were under the control of a Magnega.

Kirito was flabbergasted, much to Jaune's delight. The arrogant jerk stumbled over his own words before finally managing to squeak out, "I – wha?" He watched for a moment and then nodded. The players were working together, but it still wasn't going well. No one was flanking the boss, one group was fighting one mob monster together, and that one group was still struggling through the Bejewled tutorial. "Hopeless."

Jaune fought off the urge to agree with Kirito's pessimistic outlook.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune's mood had somehow managed to sour even further from the constant onslaught of Kirito's snide remarks, his own mistakes in battle, the glaring mistakes of the other members of the raid party, and – most infuriatingly – the loud noise of Bejeweled from the back. They had spent another hour of fighting playing Bejeweled. Even as a joke it was getting old.

What Yang noticed and he didn't was that he was getting better at fighting. Not a lot, of course. Jaune was still liable to nearly trip into a Kobold's mace every so often, but it was happening less and less the longer he was around Kirito. Which meant that he was getting better the angrier he got. Yang caught a Kobold's mace in one hand and tore it free of the creature's grip before turning it around and bashing the creature's helmet in. She tossed the weapon away and both it and its former wielder glitched for a moment before shattering into a thousand blue shards. Unfortunately, even as Jaune got better and better, a layer of Darkness began to grow around him. Nothing too bad, yet, but shadows were getting darker and light a little dimmer. She wanted to go over there and talk to him now, but things were dangerous... and Sora had asked her not to. He firmly believed Jaune already had all the help he needed in the form of his friends' support. She wasn't sure she agreed: Vomit Boy had always needed step by step instruction after all, but she'd let it slide for now.

"Why did we get stuck with taking out the mobs?" Jaune asked Yang as he dodged an attack and they landed near one another. He swiped forward with the Kingdom Key, slapping the incoming mace out of the way, then lashed out with a stab that sent the Kobold into oblivion. "I think we could do more."

"Not going to lie, I'm a huge fan of the confidence," Yang said before pausing and shoving her foot through a Kobold's chest, "but you're wrong. _I_ could do more. You're about to be hit in the face by a mace. Heh. Rhyming."

Jaune turned slightly to glare over his shoulder. "What do you -" he was cut off as Yang's prophecy came true and the metal orb slammed into his cheek. He was sent spinning.

"Hahahaha!" came Kirito's laugh from nearby. He jumped forward and bisected the monster that had attacked Jaune, then shouldered his weapon for a moment. "You, Dumb, are really dedicated to reliving the slapstick comedy of your movie. When you finally get killed, it'll be a blow to comedy everywhere."

Jaune thought about how happy he'd be if Kirito would just drop dead, though part of him immediately regretted wishing that on anyone. Kirito and him just... didn't mesh. That was no reason to wish he'd die. How he treated everyone like the Faunus were treated back home? That might have been toeing the line. "With how you watch our backs I won't be surprised if you get everyone around you killed one day," Jaune hissed, marching up to Kirito and shoving him. Part of Jaune's mind screamed at him that they were in the middle of a life and death battle, but he didn't feel like listening to it. He absently lashed out to his right with the Keyblade and another Kobold disappeared when the blade elongated with black energy.

Kirito's eyes widened and he stumbled backwards in surprise. "I WANT THAT!" he screamed, his voice cracking so hard it basically snapped in two. He blinked once and saw that Asuna and Yang were looking at the two of them with a confused and simultaneously annoyed glare. He cleared his throat and continued, "Okay, let's play a game of fuck off. You go first."

Jaune scoffed and shot back in the way that would hurt Kirito the most. "Lady voices first."

"I'm going to kill you!" Kirito growled, leaping forward to slash his sword at Jaune's head.

Jaune easily blocked the attack and shoved his shoulder into Kirito's chest, Darkness trailing at his heels.

"Goddammit, Vomit Boy!" Yang snapped. She smashed her hands together and crushed a Kobold's head before turning to deal with what was happening. "Asuna, come on!"

"Fight, fight fight!" Asuna was too busy laughing at the sight of their fight. Her voice took on a fake, castigating tone when she noticed Yang glaring at her dryly. "Ahem... Er, I mean... Guys, you can't fight in the middle of a boss fight! That's... no... come on!"

"Real nice, Asuna. Real nice."

Thankfully, the little spat the two boys were going through was interrupted before it could get too big. Ilfang's attention had been momentarily brought their way by sheer bad luck. The boss' attention had been lured around when a squad of tanks had attracted his attention in the wrong direction. Upon seeing the flare of Darkness that Jaune had launched from his weapon, it had decided his threat level was far greater than anything else present and had begun to lumber towards their small group. It growled, a low and dangerous rumble, and slapped its arm out to the side to move Asuna out of its path.

"Asuna, look out!" Yang snapped. The other girl turned, but they both knew she didn't have enough time or space to dodge, so Yang did what she had to do. She ran towards the other girl and tackled her to the ground, rolling over Asuna and letting her back slam into Ilfang's incoming arm. The rather powerful attack sent the two women flying, accompanied by a yelp of pain from Yang and a shriek of surprise from Asuna. The two sailed through the air in a ball and landed heavily on the other side of the room. When they landed, Yang forced herself to her feet and raised her fists. "Every. Time." She held her hands above her and cast a quick cure so the two of them could get back in the fight.

These noises were able to capture the attention of the dueling boys, and both felt their attitudes immediately freeze. "Yang!" Jaune shouted. He sprinted towards the two women, accompanied by Kirito, and hissed angrily at himself. He'd been acting stupid again! He had to calm down or –

He and Kirito were interrupted by a giant Kobold slamming into their path. "Oh, great," Kirito muttered. "He looks neither big nor friendly... Well, good luck!" He turned and began to walk away from Jaune, leaving him to fight the monster on his own. The Kobold's red eyes flashed towards Kirito and its ax slammed into his path. "Or... good luck to _us!_ Yeah!" Kirito turned back tot he Kobold and readied his sword again.

"Where is everyone else?" Jaune asked when Kirito stood beside him again. He spared a half moment to glimpse towards his unwilling partner. "Shouldn't they be helping?"

"Getting in the way, more like," Kirito muttered. He surveyed the room and saw that while they were the main focus of Ilfang, the rest of the Raid group were taking what he deemed to be a break, focusing entirely on the mobs rather than engaging Ilfang in the slightest. Diavel was screaming at most of them to move up and try to fight the boss, but they continued ignoring him. "We, uh, we're on our own, Dumb."

The giant Kobold took this moment to begin its assault. The ax went up again and swung around in a horizontal slash that aimed to kill both warriors. Kirioto rolled his eyes and easily flipped over the attack, a move that left Jaune easily in the attack's path. He didn't miss a beat, however, and brought the Keyblade around in a block. He angled the blade so that the huge ax flew upward and the monster over extended. Nobody took advantage of this, however, as Kirito was landing, Yang and Asuna were too far away, and everyone else was not paying any attention. On the other hand, this did give them a moment to breathe.

Jaune grunted in exertion as the ax blade flew away from him. "Then we have to put this aside and work together." He saw Yang and Asuna sprinting at the creature from behind, and his mind quickly moved towards formulating a plan. He tried to catch Yang's eye – he thought he did – and motioned upward with his head. "And maybe we're not that alone. Trust me?"

"Ha! No."

Jaune forced the rage down. "Asuna and Yang?"

"Meh..."

"Then we're going low, the ladies are going high," the Keyblade wielder stated simply. Then he took off towards Ilfang. Kirito groaned and shook his head before sprinting after Jaune. The two of them kept an eye on the monster and ducked low as the buckler's edge swept low and aimed to take out their heads. The metal skimmed Jaune's hair as he passed and fear he was about to die rose in his gut. Again, he forced the emotion down. He couldn't be scared, or angry, or anything right now. He needed to fight. So he kept running, shooting to the left and jumping towards Ilfang's right leg; simultaneously, Kirito put his sword in front of him, the blade taking on a blue-green glow, and rushed Ilfang's left flank.

Yang had not originally understood what Jaune had asked her to do: they were still a new team, after all. Despite that, Yang wasn't stupid – she picked up what Jaune was suggesting the moment he and Kirito started running for the monster's legs. "Okay, hope you're okay moving really fast through the air," Yang said simply.

"What?" Asuna inquired, dully confused by the statement. Her confusion disappeared when Yang grabbed onto her shoulder with one hand and arm with the other and _threw_ Asuna towards the skull of the floor boss. Asuna screamed in the air for a moment as her cloak whipped about in the air and was torn from her shoulders, the red cloth floating away before disintegrating from accrued damage. She tumbled for a few seconds before regaining control and forcing the tip of her weapon in front of her. It glowed a bright green, a light that trailed through the air over her shoulder and through her flowing, honey blonde hair. Under her breath: "I'm going to kill that bimbo."

As Jaune's Keyblade cut through Ilfang's right leg and Kirito's through the boss' left leg, leaving bright red gashes halfway through the main body of the leg like digital blood, so too did Asuna's rapier. It pierced the back of the toppling Ilfang's skull easily, like piercing styrofoam. The red bar beside the floor boss' head sped towards zero as the attacks damage was finally felt, and suddenly Asuna, Jaune, and Kirito were attacking red shards floating across the room. As soon as the boss died,, the Kobolds within the room entered a panic animation and beat a retreat through holes in the walls.

Asuna landed in a roll and came up to her feet with nary an oversized hair out of place. Jaune looked over and caught Kirito staring. "Wow, she's almost as good as I am," Kirito muttered in disbelief. He caught Jaune staring and a red tinge spread across his face. "What are you looking at Dumb? Go be a cheerleader."

"And here I thought you didn't like anyone," Jaune muttered as the Keyblade vanished from his hand.

"We did it!" Everyone screamed, excited by their victory.

"What!? _We!?_ " Kirito snapped just in time for Yang to run up and hear.

He was ignored as cheers continued to erupt. "We did do it..." Diavel muttered in disbelief. He turned around to glare at the players behind him. "No thanks to you _idiots!"_ The cheering died down and every pair of eyes focused on the blue haired warrior's enraged features. "God, I used to have a modicum of faith in the human race, but I can clearly see that was almost as stupid as all of you! Bejeweled, in a boss fight! None of you know the difference between flanking an enemy and standing in front of them with your weapons on the ground and your pants around your goddamn ankles! And, worst, you all make the Kardashians look like geniuses! The _KARDASHIANS!_ "

The raid party was quiet for a moment after his explosion of rage, until... "What a dick!"

"You know what, fine, I'll just leave you all to die in the next boss floor. I'm going to get a bunch of money and buy a beach house. You can all go die for all I care you ungrateful pieces of shit!" Diavel panted for a moment or two, then turned on his heel and marched towards the stairs leading up to the second floor. He marched up three at a time towards the large double doors and raised his hands. "Peace out, A-holes!" Then he slammed his open palms into an invisible wall. A red hexagon appeared above him, stretching from wall to wall. _Boss Not Defeated_.

"Oh... Oh, son of a bitch," Diavel muttered. Then a large, black shadow erupted from the wall in front of him and he hit the wall on the entrance side of the room. The shadow bounced from wall to wall to ceiling before landing with a heavy, terrifying thud in the center of the room. Jaune was beside Diavel before the creature could reveal its shape, raising his Keyblade and trying to cast a Cure. It wouldn't come.

He looked over a moment later to see Kirito leaning over Diavel... and trying to give him a potion. Jaune was dumbstruck at the appearance of the black haired warrior doing something _good_. He was here without thinking, just like Jaune was. He had run to help Diavel before he could even consider doing something else, just like Jaune had. That didn't sound like Kirito, at least not the one Jaune had known thus far. The Keyblade wielder felt a sudden sense of camradarie with the swordsman, like he was a good person. You know, underneath the seventy layers of asshole. "I... It's better this way. How can you stand working with... _them_."

"I've been playing MMOs a long time, Diavel. And if there's one thing I've learned it's this – Lions need not concern themselves with the opinions of _sheep_." The feeling of friendship lessened, but Jaune tried to look past what Kirito had said. It was difficult, but he somehow managed.

"So wise." More difficult.

"You know, in another life... maybe we could have been friends," Kirito said, his voice filled with pleading. Jaune felt bad for the dark haired swordsman. He wasn't the cruel, powerful man he claimed to be. He was a sad, lonely boy lashing out at a world he was scared of. Jaune Arc knew all about lashing out.

Diavel, his voice growing ever weaker, laughed dryly. "Doubt... it." And then he disappeared in a flash of blue.

"... Well, screw you too!" Kirito snapped while he glared at the empty space where a man had just been. He turned towards Jaune, who was smiling dumbly at Kirito. "Oh, what, now are you going to be my cheerleader, too? I know I deserve one, but I don't need you as my groupie, Dumb."

Jaune's features soured. "Just shut up and -" his eyes widened as a crystalline Heart appeared between Kirito's arms, all that remained of Diavel. Jaune's head snapped towards the gargantuan, Dark blob in the middle of the room that every player was regarding with worried looks. "No!" Jaune took off as fast as he could, ignoring Kirito's mocking. "No, no, no..."

A wave of Darkness threw him and everyone else off of their feet a moment later.

Jaune came to his feet sooner than anyone else, his experience with Darkness giving him something of a resistance to its power. He pushed himself to his feet, followed soon by only Yang, Kirito, and Asuna. Everyone else was out of the fight, chained to the wall or ground by tendrils of Darkness that looped around their wrists, legs, or midsections. "What the hell just happened? What kind of boss fight ends just so another one can immediately begin!?" Kirito snapped. He rubbed the back of his neck and grimaced. "Kayaba, you psycho douchebag."

Jaune didn't respond. He and Yang were focused entirely on the huge Heartless that now filled the room, its features having coalesced from the blob of Darkness. It had retained something of the original shape of Ilfang, though there were a few key differences. For one, the ax and buckler were gone, replaced by a massive, straight sword in its right hand with a large notch at the head. Tendrils of Darkness extended past its left hand as gnarled and jagged claws. The eyes, once a deep red, had turned a sickly yellow and its flesh to a blue-black color. The mouth had become nothing but a jagged, orange-yellow line. The feet of the creature melted into the ground, and Jaune was reminded of the Shadow Heartless he had fought; this creature could likely melt into the ground and walls to avoid damage. Its chest was hollow, the shape of a Heart carved cleanly from its flesh.

"A nodachi?" Kirito asked aloud, staring at the huge weapon in the Heartless' hand.

Asuna turned to Kirito. "A what?"

"An old sword mainly used for dick measuring."

"... Why?" Jaune asked. Kirito just shrugged.

"Doesn't matter. Let's just kill it!" Yang shouted. She slammed her fists together in front of her, and Yang's hair suddenly exploded into fire as her eyes turned a bloody red. She made a noise that sounded equal parts defiant roar and excited laughter and sprinted towards the Heartless, flame trailing from her hair.

"No, Yang! We need a plan!" Jaune shouted, but he was ignored. Asuna had already followed her, in fact, a shriek of bloodlust escaping her lips.

"What is it with the women I meet in this game being crazier than I am?"

Jaune looked over at Kirito. "We should probably help them."

"Will they need it?" Kirito asked, and they both chuckled lightly before realizing who they were laughing with and immediately stopping.

Seriously, though, Jaune was completely unsure himself. "Maybe?"

Meanwhile, Yang and Asuna were charging the Heartless-Ilfang side by side, flames appearing in her fists that emulated that rising from her head. "Dibs on the first punch!" Yang shouted, eliciting a groan from Asuna. Yang laughed and leaped into the air, spinning and punching out with her right and then left hand. The two Firas went rocketing towards the Heartless, burning bright and deadly as they approached the monster. It hissed and batted one away with the sword, the magic disappearing as it touched the edge of the blade. The other fireball it caught in its free hand, letting it explode in its palm uselessly. Yang wasn't dismayed by this, as she was still soaring towards the creature. "TAKE THIS!" She brought both of her fists forward together, a single Firaga balled up between her fingers, and collided fists first into the creature's head. Or she would have, had the creature not melted into the ground at the first opportunity. Yang flew over it and gulped nervously before it sprouted from the ground and wrapped its claw around her leg. It whipped her forward and she flew towards Asuna, who deftly spun around her and raised her rapier. She dodged another attack from the nodachi and sprang forward past the creature's claws, one tracing barely through her hair. What she wasn't expecting was magic, a Dark Earth spell appearing in the Heartless' open claw. Asuna screamed out in pain as a block of earth slammed into her back and she tumbled across the ground, then was struck by the monster's foot and she skidded across the ground, coming to a stop beside Yang, who was being tended to by Kirito and Jaune.

"Yang, are you ready to come up with a plan now?" Jaune asked with an annoyed sigh.

"Hey, I said that's your job, Vomit Boy."

"Vomit Boy? Oh, I'll have to hear that story," Kirito cut in, a cruel grin crossing his features.

"Then let me plan!" Jaune snapped. He took a breath. "Sorry, just -"

Yang put her hand on his shoulder and pulled himself up. "Nah, don't be. We should be quiet. Now, go fast so it doesn't kill us." She gestured towards the Heartless that was moving threateningly towards them, dragging its sword along the ground behind it in an effort to inspire fear. Given the crying of the surrounding players, it was working on some. One guy had a screen above his face, a purple set of words that said 'Drop: Soiled Pants' across its face.

Jaune grimaced and racked his brain. "Dumb, hurry up!"

Jaune ignored Kirito.

"Jaune, he's getting close!"

He ignored Asuna.

"Vomit Boy!"

Jaune's mind flashed back to Sora and his stories, about being able to use powerful attacks with people from different worlds. Limits. "Okay, I've got a plan. Let's hope it works!" He raised the Kingdom Key above his head. What had Sora told them he'd always said before these? Oh, right. "Come on!"

It was like everyone in the group was acting without thinking, moving and doing things that, usually, they couldn't. Jaune and Kirito ran ahead first, both of their swords glowing bright white with Light magic that elongated their weapons. They ran in a criss-cross pattern, forming a chain composed of Light. It dragged along behind them as they ran. The Heartless' sword came down to attack and the two split apart, running in opposite directions. The nodachi slammed into the center of the links and immediately the light separated from Jaune and Kirito, wrapping around the sword and shooting out to pin the weapon to the ground. Next, Asuna leaped upwards, a Thunder spell she didn't know how to use trailing from the tip of her rapier. It shot forward once, twice, three times and more, turning into a flash of lightning in her fist. The sparking weapon slammed into the Earth coated claw of the Heartless, the repeated blows acting like a jackhammer that demolished the stone while sending yellow magical energy through the monster to paralyze it for what came next. Yang leaped over Asuna as she fell, right fist raised and her left hand open in front of her. The Heartless hissed at her and tried to melt into the floor, its legs slowly becoming flat. Before it could, however, Yang's blow hit and a giant clock appeared around the Heartless as her Stop spell took effect.

Jaune and Kirito returned to attack the creature from both sides. Jaune ran forward first, slashing from its left side and across to the right with blades of Light. Then Kirito ran across the back from right to left. They both angled, Jaune slashing upward from in front of the Heartless and appearing behind, Kirito jumping through the Heartless symbol on the creature's chest while spinning, dealing a dozen blows within its chest. He landed and turned around, leaping into the air again. Jaune turned and tore the blade of Light from his Keyblade, tossing it up to Jaune in a single smooth movement. The swordsman caught it in his left hand and spun again before bringing both of his weapons up over his shoulder and down at the same time to cleave the monster in two from shoulder to hip. The Heartless shrieked in pain as Kirito landed behind him, kneeling on the ground with both swords in front of him. Slowly, inky Darkness began to run from the creature's shoulders, floating upward as it slowly died off. A crystalline Heart appeared where it had stood a moment earlier and floated away.

Then a loud explosion of confetti echoed through the room and a crudely drawn banner with the misspelled 'Congratulation!' appeared on the ceiling. One of the many players screamed out, "WOOT!"

Tiffany walked up to Kirito and the group as the swordsman stood up, the sword of Light in his hand disappearing with the magic that had activated their group attack. A screen appeared in front of Kirito and he quickly hit accept. Echoing the banner above, Tiff stated, "Congratulation! That was even more impressive than that cat that learned to play."

"You guys can see it too! So I'm not crazy!" someone in the crowd shouted. The cat beside him meowed innocently. "Isn't that right, Jesus...? As you command m'Lord..."

Everyone elected to, temporarily at least, ignore that. Tiffany especially, as he continued to speak uninterrupted: "You four led us to victory. These men and I will follow your guild to hell itself. Now... address your people."

Jaune grimaced as Kirito grinned and pushed past them. "Oh, this can't be good," he heard Asuna mumble under her breath.

"I always knew this day would come. Fellow gamers! We have travelled far, and up – ahem – 'many' flights of stairs to get to this point, NOOBs -" he gestured at Jaune " – and LEETs alike." His hand moved towards himself. "I'd like to take a moment to say I couldn't have done it without each and every one of you."

"Aw, that's -" Tiffany was cut off.

"'Course I'm not a liar, so I'm not gonna say any of that."

"Oh, shit," Tiff finished, his hopes dashed by Kirito simply being himself.

"Knew this was coming," Jaune muttered.

"I mean, really, I could've done this entire fight myself! Hell, I basically did! The boss focused on who? Me. Who dealt the most damage to it, both stages? Me. Who killed it? Me." Kirito turned and looked at the entire group, a smug grin on his face. "Hell, you morons didn't even manage to take any damage for me before it caught you all in a paralysis field. I'd have been better off if it were just me and a dozen amputee chimpanzees!"

Yang sighed and shook her head. "Why isn't he mentioning us?"

Jaune looked over at her. He was mildly amused. "That's what you've decided to take away from this?"

"So, for those of you who came in late and... goddammit, still with the Bejeweled? Well, for you idiots among morons, perennial Bejeweled tutorial players, shoot for the stars. It'll be fun to kick back and watch people who don't know a sword handle from the blade shoot themselves in the feet over and over again."

"Hey, you're not better than us!" the guy who had been speaking to 'Jesus' shouted angrily.

Kirito scoffed and opened his menu, scrolling for a moment. A flash of Light appeared around him and a long, black coat appeared over his shoulders. "My sweet ass coat disagrees." He smirked again at the surrounding players, thinking about flipping them the bird then deciding they weren't worth the effort. He turned away and walked towards the stairs leading to Floor 2.

The crowd conceded that he was correct. "It is a nice coat," Asuna muttered jealously. Her eyes narrowed. "We are going to have words." She sprinted after the swordsman, leaving Jaune and Yang to glance at one another and run after them too.

"Hey, Kirito, wait!" The black haired warrior in his new black coat turned back halfway up the stairs. Asuna glared at him from a few steps below, Jaune and Yang beside her. "I – Er, we want our share!"

"Excuse me?" Kirito asked, bewildered.

"I want my share of the coat. I did a quarter of the work, so -"

Kirito's voice got higher pitched as he snapped back. "It's a bunch of ones and zeroes! I cant just cut it up, it isn't real!"

"Then I want... half the ones."

"Screw you, I want those ones."

"We don't want any of it." Both Asuna and Kirito turned towards Jaune, the source of the voice. He crossed his arms and glared up at Kirito. "Look... you may be a _tremendous_ jerk, Kirito... but you aren't a bad – well, you aren't an _evil_ guy. Take care of yourse – and he's gone." Kirito was already running through the doors leading to Floor 2, crying about being called a jerk.

A screen popped up in front of Jaune, Asuna, and Yang each – 'Party Di-Solved.' "More mistakes in this dumpster fire," she muttered. She glared after Kirito for another moment and then turned back to Jaune and Yang. "You guys break the rules of this game, you know."

"You'd be dead if we didn't," Yang pointed out, more blunt sounding than a hammer attack from Nora. "Besides, you had fun, right?"

"I didn't say I didn't like it!" Asuna shouted defensively. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes angrily. "Just tell me how to do it..."

"That was a silent 'or else,' wasn't it?" Jaune asked of the sentence's fade out.

The honey blonde hissed, "You know what you heard!"

Jaune and Yang looked at each other again and laughed. "How'd we do it? It was Magic," they finally said together.

Asuna's face turned into an angry glare. "Fine, don't tell me. I'll get the information out of you two eventually..." A shadow crossed her face and red stars replaced her eyes for a moment, sending shivers down the spines of both Jaune _and_ Yang. " _Catch you_ later." Then she turned around and walked through the doors.

Jaune and Yang watched her go with terror in their Hearts. "She's, uh, she's going to kill someone in cold blood one day," Yang muttered quietly.

"Some _ **one**_?" Jaune asked incredulously.

The two walked back down the stairs together. "Well, was this place everything you'd hoped?" Yang asked after a few moments. Tiffany waved at them, an exasperated frown on his face as he muttered about 'that damn girl voiced boy.' Everyone was starting to follow Kirito and Asuna to Floor 2, moving on with their struggles in this world.

Jaune shrugged as he thought over everything that had happened on this world. "Well..? More or less, I guess."

"Hm..." Yang muttered. She led him over to one of the pillars and crossed her arms. She let a few more people filter out of the room before locking eyes with Jaune, her violet orbs more serious than she liked them to be. "Are we going to talk about how you've been acting?"

Jaune felt his chin hit his chest. "I-I er... Nnnnooo?" He asked, his eyes squinting further with every letter in his no.

"Yes. We are." Yang smiled a bit. "Nice try, though."

Jaune sighed and leaned against the pillar next to her. "I know, I know. I was angry. It's better now."

"Jaune..."

"Okay!" he growled. He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Yang, you think I didn't notice, don't you? I was stronger when I was angry. A lot stronger." He knew that wasn't all of it, though. "I mean, maybe I lost a little control -"

"Jaune, you got in a fight with a team mate in the middle of a fight with a giant monster. I need to know if everything is okay with you," Yang interjected simply. She crouched and let herself sit beside him. "Sora told me that you might have some trouble after everything that's happened. Salem nearly took your body over, after all. I got my arm cut off and I wasn't the same for months. You lost your body for a while. That's... well, the body of evidence is that you probably had it worse." She let a sideways grin grace her features and she raised her eyebrows a few times in the least subtle manner she could manage.

"Really? I thought you were trying to be serious," Jaune muttered. He cast an annoyed glare towards the woman beside him.

"I was making a point while bringing much needed happiness to the conversation," the brawler rebutted. She grew more serious. "Look, Jaune, it's slow going, but you're a Keyblade wielder. If anyone's strong enough to get through all of this, I think it's you. Especially with a role model like me taking you through the steps of recovery."

"With a role model like you, I'll probably end up getting into fights as part of my 'therapy.'"

Yang nodded. "It's the _best_ therapy."

Jaune was going to say something, but was cut off by a new voice. "I agree." He looked up and saw the red eyes and hair of a familiar face.

"Morrigan," Yang muttered with narrowed eyes. She surged to her feet and raised her fists, ready for a fight. "I've been looking for you."

Morrigan remained unflustered by Yang's threatening stance. "As have I, Weakness."

"Still on that, Mom? It hurts your daughter to hear that, you know."

"Not as much as this will." Morrigan spun around, a flash of Nothingness extending from her hand to create a telescoping katana. It whipped around at Yang's neck, but Yang raised her hands just as fast to block the attack with her bracers.

Jaune stumbled to his feet. "We-we're really doing this now?" he stammered.

"Yes!" Yang and Morrigan snapped.

Jaune flinched backwards in surprise before gesturing at the room. "We have... an... audience..." He turned around to find that the room was empty. Everyone had long since moved on to the second floor. Jaune shrugged and summoned the Kingdom Key back to his hand. "I guess we are, then." Then he rushed Morrigan. He would help his friend in this fight. He'd make sure that they got out of this alive and he wouldn't use the Darkness again – he wouldn't lose control.

Jaune lunged forward using the Keyblade, both hands gripped tight on the handle of the weapon. Morrigan saw him coming and disengaged from Yang, jumping back and extending the blade into one of the pillars far away. The blade easily cut into the object, then the sword shrank back down and pulled her towards the pillar. Yang didn't take long to follow her mother's Nobody, leaping into the air and using Firas to send her body flying towards the woman. Jaune simply sprinted after the two women, grumbling angrily about the speed with which those two could move while he was stuck with sprinting around.

Yang caught up quickly with Morrigan, swinging her fist around only for it to be blocked by Morrigan's sword, dismissed and resummoned back to her off hand. The blade and bracer _clanged_ against one another, the contact being used by Yang as a way to cycle into her next attack. She spun mid air and brought her left heel around in a hammer kick. Morrigon dismissed the sword again, and the disappearance of her source of leverage sent Yang's attack off course slightly, but not so much as to make her miss. Morrigan was forced to raise both her arms above her head to take the brunt of the blow, which sent her careening back towards the ground. Morrigan grunted in pain, but steadied herself and threw her hand out towards the ground, creating a Corridor of Darkness through which she disappeared. Yang landed atop the place where the Nobody would have landed.

"Yang, where did she –?" Jaune was cut off when a woman sized object slammed feet first into his side and sent him rolling to a stop behind one of the pillars. He came up to his feet and summoned his Keyblade back to his hands from the ground, raising it above his head to block the two handed blow of Morrigan's that threatened to bisect him. He shoved it away and slashed sideways with the Kingdom Key, a blow that the woman simply spun around. She turned the move into another attack, the tip of the blade glinting as it danced towards Jaune's throat, forcing him on the defense again. He barely brought the Keyblade up in time to defend. While their blades were locked: "Heh, I've never had someone's mom try to steal me away from them before..."

"Was that supposed to sound clever?" Morrigan inquired. She disengaged the lock and spun around, extending her leg directly into Jaune's chest in a back kick that sent him flying into the pillar. "Because it is not." She turned at the sound of Yang's roar to find the blonde rushing her. Morrigan jumped to the side, dodging the blonde's blows. Yang was fast, though, and she got one or two glancing blows in. With Yang, a glancing blow was still like a freight train, so Morrigan knew she had to finish this fast. She analyzed her weakness' pattern, paying attention to every punch, every kick that the brawler threw her way. Left, kick, right, left, right, kick, right, feint...

Eventually, Morrigan found what she was waiting for. Yang threw a right hook right on time, and Morrigan jumped to the left, landing easily outside of the blonde's guard. The sword in Morrigan's hand flashed towards Yang's throat, slamming into her and halving the woman's aura. Yang went soaring, eventually the small of her back slamming into the corner of the pillar near which Jaune was struggling to his feet. Yang crumpled to the ground a moment later and forced herself up to her hands and knees.

"Yang!" The Keyblade wielder turned, wild eyed, towards Morrigan and roared angrily. He sprinted towards her, forcing himself to remember his promise to remain in control of himself. Sparks of Darkness that he stamped down flared out of the Keyblade and he slashed at Morrigan's head, though the woman easily deflected the blow, causing the frustration to grow in Jaune's gut. He turned and slashed out at her throat again, but the woman stumbled backwards when sparks of Darkness formed at the tip of the Keyblade and coalesced into a weak Dark Fire that exploded along the blade she brought up defensively. Morrigan recovered quickly and jumped to the side, avoiding the upward slash that the Keyblade Wielder threw her way.

"You're slow like this." She moved underneath Jaune's guard and grabbed hold of his wrist with one hand, shoving hard and forcing him off balance so she could take a step back and release a powerful flurry of blows to his chest, slashing up and down and left and right. Jaune was thrown off balance even more with each blow. Eventually, the woman lowered her blade to her hip and held the tsuba with her off hand while keeping hold of the hilt with her main hand, then she jumped forward, the blade flashing out of her off hand for a moment before quickly returning to her hip when she reappeared behind Jaune. It took a moment, but the blow hit him all at once, the force of the attack sending him flying into the pillar once more. "Your weakness is your fear of power."

Yang's Aura had finally managed to heal her enough for her to force herself up somewhat, though her mind remained somewhat groggy for a few moments. "Ugh..." She looked up and caught sight of Jaune, himself a crumpled up heap on the ground. She crawled over to him, knees dragging across the ground with every foot she moved. When she finally reached him, Yang took a deep breath and set both fists on the ground. Pushing with all her might, the brawler slowly forced herself to stand in front of him with fists raised in defiance towards the Nobody advancing on them. "Nobody, and I mean _Nobody_ hurts my friends."

"Puns? If I remember, you learned those from Taiyang." The woman's voice didn't catch at all as she spoke. She raised her blade to her daughter's throat. "I will be glad to never hear them again." The blade rose until it was pointed at the ceiling, then it came down. In spite of herself, Yang found her eyes could not stay open. She was afraid. Afraid she had let down Ruby by dying. She'd lost too much family. Afraid that she had let down Jaune by dying. He couldn't handle losing another friend. Most of all, she was afraid she had let down her mother. She didn't want to watch as someone with her mother's face kill her.

But the pain never came. Only the loud, metallic noise of metal on metal.

Yang's eyes slowly opened and she saw that she had been saved by a somewhat tall warrior in a black cloak, his Keyblade held backhand above his head and keeping the Nobody's katana from arcing towards Yang and the unconscious Jaune. She tried to catch sight of this newcomer's features, but the cloak hid his face completely. However, the Keyblade was striking. It was gnarled black metal with white, vein like lines up and down its body. A demonic wing formed the teeth, coming out of a large blue eye set into the blade. A ram's head formed the basket along with a pair of demonic wings, leading down to a Keychain formed from wild, crossing lines adorned with the same, blue cat's eye that graced the blade. The Keyblade of Xehanort, the Keyblade of Jaune. Sora's Keyblade, now.

The figure said nothing as the surprised Nobody jumped away, putting distance between them and coldly considering this newcomer with narrowed eyes. "Sora?" Yang asked the figure. She looked around. "Ruby!"

"Not me," the figure said simply. The Keyblade in his hand spun around to a foregrip that he held out to his side. Otherwise, he stood stock still and waited for Morrigan to make the first move.

And she did. Morrigan moved forward at lightning speed, her blade pointed at this new figure and held near her shoulder. When about five feet from the man in the cloak, the sword arced around in a diagonal slash while the blade itself telescoped out to give her as much leverage as possible. The figure in the cloak didn't move from where he stood. He simply tossed his Keyblade to his left hand and raised it, blocking the attack with one hand. He flicked his wrist and Morrigan's sword was forced backwards. Then he began to attack.

He raised the black Keyblade above his head and slashed downward, the move nearly invisible to the naked eye. Morrigan was fast as well, however, and the blade in her hands shrunk down to a size more manageable for blocking. The Keyblade collided with the katana, creating a loud ringing noise. The Keyblade wielder moved into his next attack before the noise died, summoning the Keyblade back to his other hand and performing an upward slash at her now exposed body. The Nobody threw herself to the side, trying to avoid the attack that threatened to kill her. She managed, but just barely. The cloth at her waist trailed and took the blow, being cleaved cleanly where the Keyblade struck it.

Morrigan turned on her heel, grateful that she was incapable of feeling emotions like panic that would unbalance her in this fight. Her katana sliced through the air and a blade of Darkness flew towards the mysterious Keyblade wielder, purple and black swirling within the magical attack. The Keyblade wielder raised the weapon in front of him, slashing the attack in two. But he didn't advance on the Nobody. Seeing this as a good sign, Morrigan began to repeat this attack. A horizontal blade of Darkness streaked towards him, quickly followed by two attacks flying so close to one another they looked like a '+' in the air. Morrigan advanced on the Keyblade wielder with each attack, some semblance of cocky reassurance in her mind as each attack prevented the warrior from moving. She launched another barrage, ending it with a more powerful jump and overhand slam right on top of the Keyblade wielder. He looked up, cloak fluttering as the wave of Darkness hit him and exploded.

Morrigan watched the energy balloon out around the interloper. She frowned. "That was -"

"Too easy?" the Keyblader asked. He reappeared behind her, cloak showing no signs of having just taken the brunt of an explosion, and placed the tip of his Keyblade at the small of her back. The woman turned around as quickly a she could, slapping the Keyblade away with the flat of her katana then delivering a side kick to the Keyblade Wielder's chest. He moved backwards with the kick for a step, then used the momentum to spin and attack once more.

The two warriors continued to trade blows as Jaune finally came to. The blonde boy looked up, groggy and surrounding by a blurring world. It immediately snapped to focus when he saw the Keyblade wielder dueling with Morrigan. "Yang, who is that?" he asked, the man in the cloak little more than a blur of black as he moved. Jaune tried to catch sight of the Keyblade, but it moved even faster than its master.

The blonde thought back to the figure's voice and found that she couldn't quite place it, though it was familiar. On top of that, he had denied being Sora. "Jaune, he's wearing a magic cloak that hides his face. Do you think I know?"

"Fair," Jaune muttered, pushing himself up to a sitting position beside her.

The fight continued unabated, the two sword wielders moving faster than either in the audience could. Keyblade and Katana clashed in brief explosions of sparks and magic. Eventually, however, the Keyblade came around and entered into a pure struggle of power, both figures standing still as they pushed against one another. The Nobody's face was contorted, pushing as hard as she could against the Keyblade. Her arms shook, her legs slid. The Keyblade wielder, however, was stock still. His arms didn't quiver and he stood with a calm, almost lazy stance.

This was Jaune's chance to catch a look at the Keyblade, and catch a look he did. Anger flared up in his gut. "Sora!? You've been following us!?"

The figure turned his head and grew distracted when he locked eyes with Jaune. "Er, I'm n-" This was all Morrigan needed. She ducked and dismissed her weapon, sweeping the legs of the newcomer out from under him. "OH, JEEZ!" He flipped, flying into the air while Morrigan ran away and into a portal of Darkness she had summoned to run away. The man in the cloak slammed head first into the ground, legs falling past his head and toes tapping the ground. He groaned in pain and annoyance at his position. "Ugh... Better than motion sickness, at least."

Jaune looked over at Yang. "I told you lots of people had that problem."

The hood of the cloak cocked towards them, the Keyblade vanishing from his hand in an explosion of black and white. "Oh. Hello." The figure brought his feet back down and pushed himself up, brushing off his thighs as he did. He waved. "And, uh... Not that many." The figure walked over. "In fact, it might be difficult to say _we_ have that problem. Really, it's _I._ " The figure grasped the sides of his hood and pulled it down.

Jaune's heart stopped. "That's..."

Jaune looked back at him and grinned. "You? Me? Us!?" the other Jaune Arc suggested, blue eyes twinkling underneath his blonde hair. He ran one hand through his golden locks. "Have I got a story for you."


	7. Trust Issues

**AN: Hey guys, gals! 'Sup?**

 **Now, before we go any further, I wanted to just say a few things about the FFVII world. When the original game came out I was really young. Too young to play it, and by the time I was old enough the game wasn't exactly on the market anymore. That said, I will try to dive deep into the lore and the characters on the wiki and through youtube cutscenes that are important to the moments that'll be in the story. Besides, it will be different to a noticeable extent due to the blending of the characters from FFVII and their KH counterparts. For instance, Sephiroth won't be an alien's child but will be Cloud's Darkness as he was in KH, but he will still engage in actions that were present in FFVII.**

 **Anyhoo, responses:**

 **To ssjzohan: I'm glad it was a surprise last chapter! And I am in agreement: if only things like Keyblades were real. It would make for an interesting, if dangerous, world.**

 **To G3r1k: Oh boy is right. I can't wait to show everything else that comes along.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: Keyblade Lore is super interesting. I can't wait until they reveal the official backstories and origins for the weapons, because there has to be some dark secret. As for SAO:A, I tried really hard on making Kirito funny, and I was always worried that I was laughing and no one else was. That happens a lot to me. Anyways, I love responding to reviews, whether in the story or in a reply message! I mean, you guys are taking time out of your day to talk to me, so the least I can do is respond. Besides, it's fun!**

 _ **Chapter 7: Trust Issues**_

Jaune and Yang just stared, completely dumbfounded by the blonde haired and blue eyed man standing in front of them. By Jaune Arc standing in front of them. Jaune took a hesitant step forward, wondering if he was looking in a mirror somehow. A magical mirror. That changed his clothes. It was stupid, he had to admit, but the thought persisted nonetheless. Jaune raised one hand tentatively. Smirking in amusement, so too did the other Jaune. Jaune moved his hand forward to touch the other man's hand, again thinking of a mirror as the man moved in time with him. "What the hell is this?" Jaune asked. He moved his hand from that of his doppleganger's and poked the face of the Jaune in the black coat a few times.

This annoyed the other Jaune. He waved his hand, pushing Jaune's hand away. "Hey, stop that!" the black coated member of JNPR said. He raised his hand and began to poke Jaune in the face. "See? It's not fun, is it? Hey... this is pretty fun! I see why you were doing it."

"Stop, stop, I get it!" Jaune shouted in vain. The other Jaune continued to poke him in the face.

Eventually, Yang's arm shot up and grabbed the newcomer's arms, saving Jaune. "Who are you?" she asked abruptly.

"Are you like Xehanort? Can you change how you look?" Jaune asked first, fists clenched as he brought hem up and waved animatedly. "No, wait! One of those clone things that Sora told me about! You're a Replica! But... but who would make a Replica of _me?_ Who would even know how to make a Replica of me? How did they get the DNA of me to make a Replica!? How -"

"I'm not a shapeshifter like Xehanort," the other Jaune interjected. "And I'm definitely not a Replica. I'm one hundred percent certified Jaune Arc. I could dance in a white dress if you _really_ want me to prove it, but... please don't?"

Well that did mark the other blonde as a definite Jaune Arc, which raised another question. "... Am _I_ the Replica?"

The other Jaune sweatdropped. "Er... no. No, you're not, Jaune."

"Good... Jaune?" Jaune said nervously.

Yang groaned. "Okay, this is dumb. Ground rules for this conversation, one of you is getting a nickname." She pointed at the Jaune in the black cloak. "You're not my Jaune, so that makes you OJ. Other Jaune."

"'Your Jaune?'" Jaune and OJ asked in tandem.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Yes, my Jaune. I'm babysitting him, after all."

"Ouch," OJ said, looking at Jaune and grinning. "You need a babysitter?"

"No!" Jaune shouted, maybe too fast.

"Someone as handsome and rugged as you? I didn't think so," OJ complimented Jaune.

Jaune grinned. "You would know, you dashing gentleman."

Yang groaned and buried her face in her hands. "God, two of them is unbearable," she muttered. She raised one hand, palm open. "Okay, stop it, you two. I know you're happy to finally find someone who _will_ think your name is short, sweet, and that ladies love it, but we're busy." She pointed at OJ and narrowed her eyes angrily. "You, tell us what you want to tell us. Now."

Jaune noticed the anger in her voice. He pulled her to the side. "So... weren't you just telling me to cool it?"

Yang narrowed her eyes. "My mom just ran off. Again. I'm a little annoyed, Jaune," she growled before turning back to OJ. Jaune stared at her for a moment before shrugging and doing the same.

"So what's the deal, Jaune 2: Electric Boogaloo?" Yang asked forcefully.

Jaune and OJ glanced at one another before the man finally began to speak. "Look, I'm just here to tell you I'm here. I didn't want you to run into people who 'know' you."

Yang let out a slow breath. "And?"

Jaune glanced at her, then back to OJ. "Well, I was just hoping that I could have your help. It's not a guarantee I'll even need it, but -"

"Let me get this straight. You're coming to us for help?" Yang cut in.

OJ blinked in surprise. "I... Yeah. Of course, you're my friend."

Yang shook her head. "Aizen said another Keyblade wielder helped him. One that would want Jaune to survive, for some reason." She took a half-threatening step towards OJ and shoved her finger into his face. "Sounds like you, doesn't it?"

Jaune grabbed Yang's shoulder and pulled her away. Angrily and defensively, he growled, "Yang, I'm sure he didn't -"

"Yeah. Yeah, that was me, Jaune," OJ admitted with a sigh, his voice slightly hollow. He rubbed the back of his neck as Jaune stared at him, looking like he'd just been betrayed. "But... Look, just let me explain, will you? Please! I saved your lives, right? I can't be a 'bad guy' if I did that. "

Jaune gripped Yang's shoulder tighter. "I say we give him a chance," he said.

Yang looked him in the eyes for a moment before sighing and shrugging. "You got it, Vomit Boy." She turned back to OJ and crossed her arms. "Go ahead."

OJ was quiet for a few moments, looking around nervously. Raising her eyebrows expectantly, Yang forcefully asked, "Well?"

OJ flinched and shook his head. "Okay. Okay... It all began a few months ago when Salem was building the **χ** -blade. Or, rather, when she had already finished building it..."

 _ **S M H S**_

Salem stood atop the rubble of what had once been her crystalline pyramid and stared with wild eyes down at the two Keyblade wielders who dared stand against her. Their friends had long since fallen in battle, the despair clutching at their Hearts keeping them from defeating those that Salem had taken as her followers. It was inevitable now, with the moon of Kingdom Hearts darkening above and the **χ** -blade held tight in her left hand, that she would be victorious. She took a step towards her final two opponents and they took a half step back. "I'm disappointed, Jaune. Leading your old allies to my front door." Salem twirled the **χ** -blade in her right hand. "I had always expected more from you."

Jaune didn't respond, instead just clenching his fists tighter around the handle of the black Keyblade he held in front of him. His black coat fluttered as a wind borne from Salem's power shot out from the woman and tried to force the two Keyblade wielders backwards. Ruby stood beside him, her eyes set with anger and loss that helped her to resist. "I'm going to stop you," she snapped at the woman wearing her mother's skin. She twirled Crescent Rose at her side, the Keyblade glowing a bright red as it shifted its being, metal changing from sword to scythe. Then she ran at Salem and raised her weapon above her shoulder, launching a Firaga from its head that launched her even quicker towards the woman who wanted to destroy the world.

Salem raised the **χ** -blade and easily deflected the girl's blow, though the scythe came around again with a single explosion of fire. The tip of the scythe flew towards Salem's throat, so close that she thought that she would finally end this all and find a way through this. Instead, the weapon crashed uselessly into the woman's snow white skin and left only a tiny pinprick of blood that barely blossomed from within Salem. Salem reached out with her free hand and clutched the young woman's throat tight as soon as the blade's tip hit her throat. "I highly doubt that you could hope to stop me." She tossed Ruby away, the girl spiraling away and crashing through the crystal rubble to leave a purple cloud behind her.

Jaune appeared behind Salem, then, black Keyblade glinting with killing intent as he brought it in an upward, diagonal slash to bisect Salem. The woman sidestepped the attack, moving faster than she ever had as master of even her most magnificent Keyblade. She lowered the **χ** -blade to her left foot and brought it up violently, aiming to bisect her target just as her one time student had tried to do to her. He was faster than he looked, however, and brought around her first Keyblade to block what would have been his death blow. Still, it caused him to fly upward like a rocket, tumbling out of control before he began to plummet downward.

Jaune grimaced as he slowly regained some control of himself and threw the Keyblade out in front of him, calling to the weapon to shift its being as well. The weapon flashed black and white, disappearing and reappearing as a pair of black wings that flew up and attached themselves to the warrior's back. He angled himself upwards with his new vehicle and the whipping wind around him slowed with every passing moment. He descended under control until he was a manageable distance above the ongoing battle and then returned the Keyblade to its natural form in both hands above his head.

Ruby was fighting Salem on her own, or as best she could manage. Jaune watched the two fighting as he fell and quickly found gaps in the woman's defenses. Gaps that were not there when he had been fighting her. Ruby's Keyblade-scythe flashed past Salem's defenses, leaving a red gash along the woman's chest. It wasn't deep, nor did it look as if it truly hurt, but it was there nonetheless. The scythe came around again and again, sometimes encased in Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, or other spells as it swirled around like a vortex of death. "This is for my mother!" she screamed as a blow hit. She continued with every blow. "For Uncle Qrow and for my father! Ren and Nora! Blake and Sun! Vale! For Sora! For everyone that I've lost to you!"

Salem stumbled backwards as each blow hit her, leaving a thousand cuts all along her flesh. "Are you done?" Salem growled. Green light flashed from the **χ** -blade and the cuts on her body sewed themselves shut in an instant. She turned around and slashed out with the **χ** -blade, forcing Ruby to twirl the Keyblade in front of her. The blow slammed into the handle of the scythe, sending it flying from the young Huntress' grasp. The **χ** -blade flashed again and was at Ruby's throat, a threat and guarantee of the madwoman's victory over the silver eyed girl.

That was when Jaune came down behind Salem. His Keyblade was bathed in Darkness, forming a jagged edge of power that dragged across Salem's exposed back. The woman snarled in pain and the **χ** -blade's tip dipped towards the ground, giving Ruby time to summon her scythe back to her hand and coat it in a smooth coat of Light magic that burned bright, pulsating in time with the silvery glow of her eyes. With a battle roar, she brought the scythe down and crashing into Salem's shoulder. The blade burned against the woman's flesh, slowly inching through her body. At the same time, the black energy around the Keyblade intensified and was brought up at the hip directly across from the scythe. Darkness and Light began to approach one another, ever so slowly.

Salem hissed in pain and raised the **χ** -blade towards Ruby, slashing at the girl's head. The **χ** -blade went wide, however, missing Ruby without the girl even having to make an attempt at dodging. This gave Jaune all he needed to know – Summer Rose, whose Heart formed the crucial final piece of Light that made up the mythical **χ** -blade, was in control of the weapon in some way. "HARDER!" he screamed, pressing the blade harder into Salem's body. Ruby roared and brought her Keyblade-scythe down with a Firaga, the attack tearing a jagged line through the shoulder of the arm that held the **χ** -blade.

At that, Salem panicked. Her hand shot out to wrap around Ruby's throat. The girl, preoccupied with battling Salem, did not care and simply continued to push against the flesh and bone of what had once been her mother's body. "Continue and die!"

Ruby saw the panic in Salem's eyes. "I won't let you win!" the girl cried. Tears were streaming from her eyes and another Firaga increased the strength of her attack once more. The scythe burned through Salem's arm and the **χ** -blade fell tot he ground. Jaune abandoned his weapon and dove to catch the **χ** -blade, rolling to his feet with the most powerful weapon in the universe in his hands.

Salem screamed incoherently as her body slowly fell apart, flesh melting from her bone. "You stupid girl!" Energy pulsed through the woman's body and Jaune knew what she was going to do. She was trying to force her Heart into Ruby's, to take final revenge and distract him from using the **χ** -blade to reverse the destruction of the world.

Sadly, it worked.

Before Jaune could do anything to save Ruby, the world shuddered and a loud _click_ echoed through the sky. He looked up at the moon above, filled completely with Darkness instead of the Light it was meant to radiate. Darkness began to creep across the entirety of Remnant, the last vestige of the realm of Light, filling it up while Jaune could only watch.

The world slipped away, dead. Nothing was visible except Darkness stretching on for eternity in every direction. Salem, now dressed in the skin of Ruby, Crescent Rose shattered at her feet, laughed – no, cackled in triumph. She watched the Pure Darkness spread from within and without the world. The ground exploded, screams of death and pain echoed across the battlefield. Evil had won.

Jaune wished he could escape, that he could change this. He wanted to get out. He wanted to find something, anything. His mind returned to Pyrrha. He needed to find Pyrrha! He could only drift through the Darkness, though. For how long, he did not know. Time has no meaning in the Realm of Darkness, and now _everything_ was the Realm of Darkness save for the wild cackling – whether real or imagined – of Salem ringing through his ears.

And then, there was Light. The **χ** -blade exploded with power, its energy fragmenting all around Jaune as he slowly passed into unconsciousness.

He awoke some time later surrounded by the bones of Beacon Academy.

 _ **S M H S**_

"After that, I thought I was in the past, that I had another chance to save my home. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Sora was alive and Salem already defeated." OJ let his shoulders fall. "And that my world had died for real."

Jaune looked at the ground, taking in everything he'd heard. "That's... that's horrible," he muttered, looking up at OJ. He put a comforting hand on what was, essentially, his own shoulder. "I can't imagine what that must have been like. Losing everyone like that, even before the fight with Salem."

"Yeah..." Yang said, voice completely even.

"And then to lose everything else – your entire world. I mean, that makes everything I've gone through look like nothing," Jaune continued. He brought OJ in for a hug. "I'm so sorry."

OJ hugged him back. "Hey, don't say that, man. You haven't had it easy," He pushed Jaune away and smiled sadly. "We both had to deal with..."

Simultaneously. "Pyrrha."

"Yeah."

The two went silent for a while, commiserating. "And Aizen?" Yang asked impatiently.

"Oh, right, that..." OJ muttered. He sighed. "I, look, I wasn't happy about it, okay? If I had my way, I'd never have even met the guy! He was creepy and evil and he looked way too much like this singer from this other world. Josh something. On the other hand, he's easily the smartest person I could find in any world I've encountered in your time line. Which meant he was the only one that could solve my problem. Besides I didn't do anything he couldn't figure out himself in twenty seconds. In fact, I used the Keyblade to make him keep everyone there alive."

"And what did you need?" It was Jaune asking the question this time.

OJ smiled excitedly. "Okay... I don't belong here, okay? My world's gone, so I can't go back, but I can keep going, and Aizen knew how."

Yang frowned. "What do you mean keep going?"

"There's got to be more than just our two time lines. And... I'm going to keep going until I find a world where there's a Pyrrha. A place I could really _belong."_ He turned towards Jaune, his face serious. "You have to understand that, don't you?"

Jaune smiled sadly: that did sound nice. A world with Pyrrha in it? Hell, it sounded good enough that he might even go for it. He shook his head to clear it. "I... well, no real harm no foul, I guess."

"What?!" Yang snapped, voice a whisper. She glanced between the two Jaunes and sighed. "Jaune, this jerk helped Aizen! The guy tried to kill us, kill Rukia, and is working on destroying his world!"

"As if Sora would let that happen," OJ pointed out. He walked towards Yang and tried to pat her shoulder, only for the woman to sidestep him and cross her arms angrily, signaling she would not be easily placated. "I didn't want to do it! I tried to trick him, but the guy is powerful! And, honestly, I was desperate. Seeing everyone – jeez, seeing _you_ – is too hard right now. I lost all of my friends five months ago and now they're walking around and so am I!" He looked over at Jaune. "Not that, you know, I'm not happy you're around. It's just -"

"You feel like you'd just be a spare."

OJ nodded. "Like I'd be treated as the 'not real' Jaune," he reiterated sadly, eyes cast towards the ground.

Jaune frowned sympathetically. "You know that isn't how it would be."

"I'm already the other Jaune," OJ pointed out coldly. He threw his hands up and groaned. "And even if that wasn't the case, it wouldn't feel like home without Pyrrha." He looked down at Jaune, eyes meeting. "You get that, too."

"Happiness is moving forward, not trying to undo what happened," Yang cut in before Jaune could even respond.

"I – ugh, just... Look, I need a few things to move on." He took out a scroll from his pocket and handed it over to Jaune and Yang. The two looked at one another before reading together.

"Well, I don't know where you'd even get most of this stuff," Jaune began, looking up from the list at OJ's face, "but I know two of them. This thing that can fuse light and dark? That's the Hogyoku."

OJ scoffed at the name. "The Who-gee-yo-kwoo?"

"Hogyoku. Something your pal _Aizen_ stole that he's going to use to destroy his world," Yang growled, voice low and eyes flickering red.

"He what!?" OJ shouted. He growled to himself and kicked the ground. "Of course he did... I guess I'll just have to take it from him later." He looked up at them and smiled resolutely. "And that way I can fix what I messed up, I promise."

"And this other thing is a Kingdom Key, like mine or Sora's. If you need help, we totally owe you one for saving us!" Jaune exclaimed, excited he could help someone at least. He held his hand out to OJ and smiled supportively. "How could I say no to someone I know like... myself."

OJ laughed, any trace of sadness vanishing from his face. "Thanks, but I actually think I have that one figured out. If it doesn't work out, I'll totally call you back for that offer. But if I have to keep going after this, it would be nice to have my own."

"The gold one," Jaune said after a moment's thought. "The one Mickey used."

OJ nodded vigorously, already having come to the same conclusion as Jaune. "Yup! Great minds really do think alike!" he shouted, high fiving Jaune. "Still, could you, I dunno, just keep an eye out for the other things on the list? I'd owe _you_ guys one, then. Way more than one, really."

Jaune nodded before Yang could say anything. OJ's eyes softened further and tears welled up in his eyes. "I... I can't thank you guys enough."

"No need," Yang muttered under her breath. She narrowed her eyes on OJ: something about him just didn't sit right with her. "No need."

 _ **S M H S**_

Yang and Jaune sat in silence in the cockpit of the Gummi Ship, the both of them going through a pre-flight checklist so they could fly out to the next world they wanted to visit. The silence dragged on for some time, permeated only by occasional beeps and the noises of the ship they sat within. Neither felt comfortable cutting through the silence with their voices, but neither did they feel comfortable with the silence itself. Eventually: "So, how long were we down there in up here time?" Jaune asked. He turned his seat towards Yang, and she turned towards the computer in the cockpit. "Hopefully it hasn't been too long, right? Can you imagine, a thousand years passing before we ever went home ag-"

"Twenty minutes," she muttered before returning to pre-flight check.

Jaune's jaw dropped. "Twenty minutes! We were in Soul Society for a few days and that turned into months, but two days in Bridge to Aincrad and it's only been twenty minutes?" He shook his head and laughed, a nervous noise dedicated to preventing the silence from returning. "You weren't kidding about time being weird right now. Huh? Heh... Yang?"

The blonde woman sighed. "What?" she asked, looking like she was basically biting a hole through her tongue to keep from saying something.

"Yang, are you okay? You've been acting weird ever since we met the other me," he said. He scooted to the edge of his chair and looked the blonde in the eye. "What's going on, Yang?"

"Nothing," she said with a shrug. She moved to turn back to the wheel. "Now, it's my turn to choose the world, right?"

Jaune's hand on her arm stopped her. "Yang, come on. Why don't you just tell me?"

She looked over at him again and shook her head. "It's nothing," she repeated, too forcefully for it to be nothing.

"Yang, tell me." Jaune wasn't making a suggestion, now.

Yang did not like being bossed around, especially by the source of her headaches."Drop it, Vomit Boy."

"Yang!"

"I don't trust him!" she snapped. Her fists slammed into the arms of the Gummi Ship's seat and she glared with newly released emotion at her new team mate. "I don't trust that guy, waltzing in, saving our lives, asking for our help, and telling us everyone he loved is dead. Something just doesn't add up, I feel it in my gut!"

Jaune stared at her for a few moments, studying her slowly calming features. "Well, what are you going to say, Jaune?"

"You don't trust me, I get it," he said simply, turning away from her. He kept his face completely calm and glared out the window. "So, where are we going?"

"I don't trust you?" Yang asked incredulously. "How the hell are you getting that, Vomit Boy!?"

"It's obvious. You don't trust him, he's me. Therefore, you don't trust me."

"That's nowhere near true, you idiot," Yang said. She pointed at Jaune. "I don't know what it is, but I just don't like him. He's..."

"He's lost more than either of us ever have, so maybe you should cut him a break even if you won't cut me one," Jaune growled without looking at her. "I get you have reason to not trust me, but we have no reason to not trust him."

"He worked with Aizen!" Yang shouted. She threw her hands up. "Are you saying that's not a good enough reason to not trust him? Then I'd love to hear what _would_ be! Does he have to try to destroy the world himself before you'll admit something is off!"

"I know myself better than anyone, Yang, and he fought against Salem when I didn't. He's better than that." He glared at her for a while. "And the fact you think any version of me that would fight Salem _could_ do that shows that it's because you don't trust me. Better to find out now instead of later."

"Jaune – Ugh, why do boys always have to be so stupid!?" Yang snapped, returning her attention to the controls of the Gummi ship.

"What are you doing?" Jaune asked. He slammed his fists into the arm rests of his seat. "We're talking about this!"

"No, we're not. I didn't want to start a whole thing that I knew you'd get all weird about. You can't look past the fact he has your face and that he 'wants to find Pyrrha' to see that he's not quite right!"

"And you can't look past the fact he has my face to see he is!" Jaune looked nearly ready to explode with anger about this perceived distrust she had for him.

Yang blinked in surprise and shook her head, electing to take a step back before things got really bad. "Just... Just let me pick," she muttered, waving him off. She stared at the screen of world information nearby without actually reading any of it. After a moment, she brought her hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes. "Uh... This. This looks good." She pushed the controls and the ship began to glide forward.

"Let's hope this 'Gaia' place will help y – _us_ calm down," she muttered under her breath, tossing a worried look towards Jaune who simply glared out into the Darkness that surrounded them, the black and purple energy swirls reflected in his angry blue eyes. Yang wondered if he _really_ thought that she didn't trust him. She knew she did, other wise she wouldn't be here with him. But Jaune had always been... delicate, emotionally, even at Beacon. So that led to one question in Yang's mind: how the hell was she going to convince Vomit Boy that she trusted him!?

 _ **S M H S**_

Sora yawned as the comforting darkness of sleep came to an end, leaving the Keyblade wielder feeling refreshed after a few days – fun ones, he had to admit – of fighting Heartless and helping people. After all, what kind of vacation could one have without beating up monsters? The people they'd met on this world thought much the same, including his and Ruby's new friend Toshinori. Sora opened his eyes and sat up in his bed, wondering if Ruby was up yet. They'd been given separate rooms in guest dorms at Toshinori's school U.A., something Sora was somewhat relieved about. Qrow's threats were still fresh in his mind, despite the fact that it had been months on Remnant it had only been a week for the two of them. A week of staying at this school, trying to find out how to train people younger than him how to deal with impossible power and saving lives with it. He'd gotten a few good ideas so far, especially with how to make kids focus on using their abilities outside of the box.

He pushed himself out of bed and scratched his cheek absently as another yawn came from his mouth. It was probably time to move on and check on Yang and Jaune again. Shortly before coming here, they'd made sure to head down to the world the two had crash landed on and make sure they were okay. They hadn't seen anything the two couldn't deal with, so they'd left fast and let Jaune and Yang deal with Soul Society on their own. They could handle themselves, and they didn't want it to seem like they were babysitting them. Sora shuddered as he considered what Yang would do to them if she thought they were keeping too close an eye on her, something described in detail by Ruby's stories.

Sora turned and walked over to where his clothes were laid on the ground, Well, tossed more like it. He was good at saving worlds, not at keeping them clean. His sleeping shirt came off, revealing the well muscled albeit thin body of a Keyblade wielder before he unceremoniously tossed the shirt to the ground behind him. The Keyblade Master bent down and grabbed the black and red shirt he usually wore in his prosthetic left hand, tossing it up and catching it in both hands so he could slide it on. He traded out his pants for the dark gray hakama pants next and slid his red Crown emblem belt around his waist before he put on his black and red boots. A black and white short sleeved hoodie went over his shirt and he zipped it up half way, the black of the right side meeting the white of the left. The pauldron containing his Keyblade armor slid onto his left shoulder last.

"Hey, lazy bum, wake up!" Sora turned and smiled at the knocking coming from the door. Ruby's voice came again from the other side, "You can't sleep forever, Sora, we have to go have fun!"

He walked over to the door and opened it, his smile widening from what he saw. Ruby, her eyebrows close together and an impatient gleam in her silver eyes as her fist shot forward and rapped him in the nose. Sora yelped and stumbled backwards in surprise as the woman's face turned from impatient, to surprised, to sorry, back to impatient. "Oh, it couldn't have hurt that much, right?" she asked, stepping forward and pulling Sora's hands away from his face. She placed one of her own on his cheek and lightly slapped it.

"Well, no, but still," Sora said, his protest half-hearted as he grabbed the hand on his cheek and held it tight. "I think you should make it better, Ruby."

"Make it better?" she repeated, one eyebrow raised in a combination of disbelief that he would say that and mock wonder at what he could mean. "You mean... this?" She got up on the tips of her toes and pressed her mouth lightly against Sora's for a moment. The two tightened their holds on one another before separating. Sora let out a huff of annoyance.

"What?" Ruby asked, laughter in her voice. "At least you didn't think about Uncle Qrow killing you that time."

He shivered as an image of his own body being devoured by Grimm in a pit flashed through his mind, Qrow standing at the edge of the pit and laughing like a maniac. Sora returned to reality and nodded. "Small miracles," he agreed before laughing. Ruby was infected by the laughter a moment later and they leaned into a hug to support one another.

Sora leaned back and took in the sight that was Ruby Rose. Her trademark red, hooded cloak was dangling from her shoulders and clasped to her gray sweater-shirt by two small crosses accented by silvery thorns. The sleeves of the shirt ended just beyond a pair of dark leather bracers, while the main body was hidden by a harness that held up her black and red battle skirt. A belt adorned with silver bullets looped around her waist, holding a few pouches that contained personal items. Ripped stockings tucked into knee high black boots. A black and red Keyblade-Armor pauldron similar to Sora's was on her left shoulder. "Sora," she said, blushing and poking his forehead. "To anyone else this staring would be creepy."

"What? Come on, I'm not creepy!" Sora protested, lacing his fingers together at the base of his skull. "I'm focused!"

Ruby snorted at that. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Sora scowled playfully. "You're one to talk!"

They began laughing again.

Still, even with those two it would come to an end eventually. "Okay, okay... should we go look for Jaune and Yang again?"

Ruby pouted. "I guess," she muttered, disappointed. "But there were so many cool powers and weapons here! That one kid had those crazy bandage things he could use to grab people, or the amplifier for that loud kid's voice! So cool!"

"I bet there's a whole world of crazy weapons out there for us to find. You know, other than Remnant," Sora pointed out with a grin. "You know, where we're heading back soon? Where you're going to help out at Beacon for Headmistress Glynda and see all kinds of new weapons and powers?"

"Well, it sounds like I'm just complaining when you put it like that," she muttered in response, earning another laugh from Sora. "But come on... I have forever to see those!"

"Well, our vacation isn't over yet. We still have..." he raised a Gummi-computer that was in sync with their ship. "Almost two months before our beach day with everyone." His grin disappeared. "So... we should probably track down this Keyblade wielder that we saw, huh?"

Ruby grew serious as well, her mind drifting back to when they had seen him. He'd been standing far off, watching Sora, Ruby, and Toshinori cut down orange and purple 'Villain' Heartless that tried to attack the school. Any of the creatures that came near he destroyed, but he did not seek them out. Both Sora and Ruby had agreed this newcomer was someone to keep an eye on, only for him to disappear the very moment that they looked away to defend themselves. "We have no clue where he went, though."

"Probably to find Jaune," Sora noted jokingly Ruby stared at him dryly. His head went 'tick, tick, tick... RING!' "Oh... oh! Oh, he actually probably did, huh?"

"..." Ruby frowned, then let out a massive, annoyed groan. "Ugh, Yang's going to be so mad that we didn't think she could handle this!"

Sora grimaced. "Well, I'll handle Jaune. She's all yours," he said, putting his hands up and taking a step back.

"Jerk!" Ruby's fist playfully slammed into his chest.

"Oof!" Sora grunted as the fist hit his chest. "Hey, takes one to know one!"

 _ **S M H S**_

Ozpin, one-time Master of the Keyblade and formerly the immortal Headmaster of Beacon Academy, was hard at work following his retirement from teaching. He was overseeing the construction of the new school where he would help teach. The irony was not entirely lost on him that he had retired only to do what he had been doing for decades, but it couldn't be helped. He'd always been a teacher and he had always enjoyed it. Qrow, on the other hand, had really only ever taken teaching seriously as a part time job, as he was more inclined to explore the world and adventure like a man half his age. Therefore, the man had elected to explore the newly revealed landmass of Destiny Island alongside Schnee Corp. surveyors, paid Huntsmen, and the company's current leader. That it gave Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee much time alone was likely the main reason the man had decided to forego helping Ozpin oversee construction. That he hated the minutiae of supervising was likely another core reason.

Ozpin sighed and looked up from a Scroll he held in his right hand so he could survey how the construction was going so far, while also appreciating the breeze that came in from the coast nearby. Scientists from Atlas were setting up as an experimental training facility, to be used for sparring between and battles against programmable Schnee battle bots. Elsewhere, artisans from Mistral were carving an image of the Keyblade vanquishing a massive Grimm sea serpent. Construction workers from Vacuo – Faunus and human alike – were setting up the main body of the temple-like structure with stone and steel from their homeland. Vale itself was providing the power source and a majority of the programming for the combat droids, as Vale had been known for having the best of the Huntsmen for nearly three decades.

"I see you're taking to retirement as well as expected." Ozpin raised an eyebrow behind his green glasses and turned towards the woman who had spoken. Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy was walking towards him with the same stern look on her face as always, though it seemed softer for seeing him again. She had traded her riding crop in for a familiar cane that was retracted within itself and placed in the holster on her hip. "Ozpin."

Ozpin smiled. "Glynda. It's been too long," he said. Ozpin raised his hand and took hers, shaking it once. "And besides, retirement is over rated. You'll see when you get to be... well, not _my age_ , but a decade or two perhaps." He returned his attention to the Scroll.

"You seem slightly worried," Glynda pointed out. She put a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder.

Ozpin laughed. "You've known me too long, Glynda." He sighed and shut the Scroll completely. "The Lien that each of the Kingdoms pledged to help build the Academy is substantial, but I'm still fielding ideas for how the Academy will continue to supply itself without a steady source of income."

Glynda bit her cheek and thought for a moment. "You could rent land on Destiny Island. The Council has been begging me to get them an in with you."

"Qrow believes that the various governments and companies would be more interested in espionage than helping us. The only reason he trusts Schnee Corp at the moment is because Winter is in charge and they would not dare cross us so soon after the former CEO's actions. It would damage them too much."

"And yet you think it is an inevitability."

"Yes." Ozpin sighed and looked out at the ongoing construction. "This school will be more advanced than anything that has come before, and it will be closely connected to the other Academies and the Kingdoms through Ruby and her friends. Whereas the Keyblade Wielder was once a hermit protecting the worlds from afar, it is now becoming more widely known and integrated into Remnant. This is good – it gives a sense of weight to what they fight for."

"But you must take the bad with the good," Glynda finished for him. "Risking corruption, theft, and fear from others – the same things that nearly destroyed the four Academies."

Ozpin shrugged and decided to change the topic. "You obviously did not come here to hear me complain, did you? What can I do to help you, Glynda?" he inquired, his tone growing lighter.

"I need an excuse to visit an old friend?" Glynda asked, her voice stern yet innocent of any other motive. "Though, I could use some advice on dealing with Vale's council. Politicians are... ugh."

Ozpin smiled. "Of course, Glynda. I would more than glad to help you," he said sincerely. He turned around. "I'd be glad to speak more with you in a short while. My next meeting is already here."

Qrow walked up, a cocky grin on his face. "Glyn," he said, shooting a half salute to the two. "Been too long."

"Mr. Branwen," the woman responded, reaching out to force Qrow into shaking her hand, something he did with a smirk. "And it's 'Headmaster Goodwitch' to you."

Qrow let go of her hand and grinned wider. "'Kay, Glyn."

The woman rolled her eyes and walked away, casting a glance over her shoulder. "It was nice seeing you both." Then she continued on her way, the two men watching her go for a moment.

"How was the trip to the north west of the island?" Ozpin asked after a moment of silence, turning towards Qrow.

"Eventful," the Huntsman said, a wicked grin on his face.

"Hm... Hopefully you did more than engage with Ms. Schnee, Qrow. It would be unfortunate if I had to send you _alone_ from now on," Ozpin stated dryly.

Qrow straightened up. "You wouldn't," he muttered with narrowed eyes.

"Do I look the type to bluff, Mr. Branwen?" Ozpin said back, voice low as his threat carried.

Qrow considered this for a moment before scoffing. "Well, lucky for both of us, then, that I did do my job. Too." Qrow stood up straighter and took out his Scroll, opening it and tapping on a few locations. "They've started to show up." He expanded the Scroll further so the map could be seen by the both of them, revealing a trio of dots on the northwestern coast of Destiny Island. "Nothing major yet. Griffons and Nevermores are popping up around here, and Beowolves – God knows how – here and here. That's, uh, not the worst, though." He placed his index finger on another location. "Shadows. A good couple hundred all throughout the mountain range. One or two Wyverns and a squad of Neoshadows near the center of the island where Salem died."

"Unfortunate, but to be expected. This could not remain a haven from creatures of Darkness for long." He closed his own Scroll and pocketed it. "We'll need to set up defenses around the Temple itself. We should have some money leftover in our current budget for that."

"That's what you were talking to Glyn about, then? This place is broke in five years?"

"Well, not if we turn the appearance of these creatures into a benefit. A sparsely populated, safe training ground far from the Academy would be an invaluable training experience for Huntsmen, Huntresses, and our own students. Perhaps even as a weapons testing ground for the Kingdoms and the companies nearby. It would also mean that the small outpost near the Academy remained such," Ozpin said, forming an idea. "Yes... this shows promise."

"Wow, I feel like you already had this planned out," Qrow muttered.

Ozpin laughed dryly. "No, but... I have practice dealing with this. The Four Academies required similar decisions be made in order to survive."

"Well, we should still probably send me and Sora out every few weeks. A 'safe' training ground wouldn't stay safe if too many of the big guys started to show up. And there goes the customers," Qrow said. He looked down at his Scroll and slammed it shut.

"Worried about your niece, Qrow. How sentimental of you," Ozpin said with a smirk.

"No, I'm worried I'm going to have to murder Sora. He not only didn't ask if she could leave with him, but it's also been months. Months of them alone. Without me to keep anything from happening." Qrow fumed angrily and his fist began to quiver at his side. "I changed my mind. I'm not worried I'm going to have to murder Sora. I _am_ going to have to murder him."

Ozpin shot his old friend a semi-serious glare. "Do try to be gentle, Qrow. He did save the world, after all."

Qrow grinned wickedly again. "...No."

 _ **S M H S**_

A young man with spiky black hair stood at the ready, his illogically large sword held in front of him as the creatures advanced. They were monsters, formed from pure Darkness with burning yellow eyes filled to the brim with hunger. They scared him, he noticed. Hell, more like terrified him. He shook off his feelings and pushed them down, knowing it was time to fight not wonder about these creatures and their odd powers. He studied them closer to find a weakness.

The three creatures were mostly black, and looked like floating demons. They had feet with two wicked talons apiece. From its spine sprouted a long tail that ended with a bladed edge that looked nearly as sharp as the odd, segmented sword it held in its right hand. Its left hand was empty, though it too had talons that looked ready to cut steel like butter. Angelic wings that faded from black to white were present at the creature's elbows, mirrored by demonic wins sprouting from its shoulders. It had a face of death crowned with a large, empty Heart shape exactly like the empty hole in its chest.

The man with black hair jumped forward with his massive blade held in one hand, its tip towards the ground and its blade facing the enemy as he brought it up in an upward sweep. The creatures scattered as he approached, though his blade came close to catching all three. Instead, his sword caught against that of the middle monster, though the force was enough to send it stumbling backwards through the air, which gave the man time to follow up with another attack that cut through the creature cleanly and left nothing but smoke behind.

The other creatures were on him not long after, working together to try and cut him down. The black haired warrior moved backwards smoothly, easily deflecting every blow that the monsters sent his way. Still, they didn't give him much of an opening to counter and he was forced to bide his time.

Meanwhile, his two partners were dealing with their own opponents with varying degrees of success. One, a young man with long white hair and an even longer, wildly unwieldy looking Katana, was doing well. His blade flashed in elegant, precise movements that cut down the squadron of creatures gunning for him. The blade sliced one in half, then pierced the skull of another before an explosion of fire left the man's hand and incinerated a third entirely. A fourth, fifth, and sixth monster circled the man and tried to attack as one. Black energy flew towards the man and he smirked at the attempt. He spun around as quickly as possible, his silvery blade leaving a trail behind it as it created a tornado that forced the Darkness to ricochet away from him and back at the monsters, turning all three instantaneously into smoke.

The last young man wasn't doing very well. He had a helmet over his head that hid his face and a rifle that did not seem to be doing much damage to the monsters that were attacking him. The bullets that he shot passed harmlessly through the creatures' inky flesh and soared away from the battlefield. It was unfortunate, then, that he was faced with just as many creatures as the white haired warrior, and they were advancing on him far more easily than on the katana wielding warrior. The gun flew with commendable accuracy between the monsters, placing bullets firmly in the large skulls of the creatures, but it did less than nothing to them so they did not bother trying to dodge. When they got close enough, one easily slapped the gun out of his hands and the man stumbled backwards, falling to his back. The monsters all lunged at him a moment later, and his eyes shut behind his mask.

The long katana flashed through the air again and cleanly cut through five of the monsters. He snarled in rage before lashing out with pinpoint accuracy to bury his blade between the eyes of the sixth before turning and decapitating the two attacking the black haired young man. "Thanks, Seph!" he shouted, annoying the white haired man slightly.

Still, Sephiroth said nothing and allowed his partner to approach their comrade on the ground. "Are you okay?" the black haired man asked his ally on the ground. He held out his hand and pulled him up before sheathing his large weapon across his back.

"Yes, Sir," he mumbled nervously in response. "Thank you both, Sirs."

The black haired man laughed. "Come on, Cloud, I told you to stop with the 'Sir' thing. It's Zack to my friends." He grinned and looped his arm around Cloud's shoulder. "Besides, 'Sir' makes me feel old."

"I keep forgetting we're all the same age, Sirs – er, Zack. Sephiroth," he looked at Zack and the white haired man in turn. "The youngest SOLDIERs First Class ever! I feel more like a kid with you two, honestly..." Cloud glanced down, keeping his helmet on.

"It is a result of hard work that we are here," Sephiroth stated, his voice even and professional. He – somehow – sheathed his katana at his hip in a single movement. His voice became slightly softer. "You could one day reach this point."

"... Thank you, Sir," Cloud responded with a salute.

"Sir!? Again?" Zach shouted, shaking his head. He twisted the helmet on Cloud's head to the side and walked further along the path. The lights of a small town – Nibelheim – glowed in the distance. "Come on, ready to see your home?"

Cloud groaned. "Oh, er... Sure..."

"Sounds like someone is hiding secrets from their family," Sephiroth muttered dryly. "Did you already tell everyone you're First Class?"

Cloud answered only with embarrassed silence.

"Wow. Well, I guess that's why you haven't taken that ugly helmet off!" Zack joked with a grin.


	8. Source of Darkness

_**AN:**_

 **Hey everybody! Hope you're all okay. If anyone is from Houston or the surrounding areas of Texas and the Gulf area that is affected by the Hurricanes or will be, I hope you all make it through safe. That's terrible, and no one should have to live through anything like that.**

 **Responses:**

 **To ssjzohan: So much going on! This first section of this world is going to have more emotional growth than any Limits for Jaune or Yang, though Yang will use a new spell this chapter. They will have more when they get stronger through the story, though.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: Thanks for the 'usual stuff!' I'm glad you love how this is going, and I hope that what I write lives up to your expectations of what I might do. I also like that OJ was a surprise, I really like what I have planned with him. He's... an interesting character. And don't worry, I'll never stop replying!**

 **To Darth Stigma: First off, yes. I love toying with people's emotions. It the only thing that makes me feel big. Second and more seriously, Yang's hypocritical statements are important and going to come into play during the next two chapters. In real life everyone overlooks their own faults, even if it's the same one that they notice in someone else. It's certainly true in the people I've met and myself to my chagrin, so I thought I'd just put that common flaw in as part of the story. Thanks for the criticism, of course. I'm glad you didn't curse at me; civility is important.**

 **To tensmash1: I don't actually think Sephiroth** ** _is_** **Jenova's child in KH. I buy into him actually being a physical manifestation of Cloud's Darkness, as Cloud is from Radiant Garden and they've never mentioned Jenova being part of that world. On top of that, they redesigned his facial structure for KH to match Cloud's almost perfectly, as well as alluding to Cloud having destroyed him before only for him to come back time and again. I get where you're coming from, but I'm going to go with what I'm going with for now. Thanks for the review!**

 **To GuestWithIdeas: Thanks! I'd be happy just to hear they're just good, but best is amazing! Sadly, I don't have any plan to bring Pyrrha back. I love Pyrrha, but in this story there is a difference between 'Heartless' and 'Dead.' As for whether I have any plans for Salem in any form in this story or any possible sequel story, I'm not going to say. Finally, of course Sora and Sephiroth are going to have to fight! It may be Jaune's story, but where's the fun if Sora and the others don't show up sometimes?**

 **To Gojosin: 1 – Reborn, certainly. It's a lot like Skye and Sora in** ** _SMHS_** **: there's a lot that's the same, some that's different. It's more direct, of course, given that they're the same characters. But yes, reborn.  
** **2 – I did not think you forgot that! That's going to play into the events in Nibelheim and what happens with Sephiroth. Actually, the fact that he's technically older than Gaia in this universe kind of replaces the Jenova plot line. Since they disappeared from Blue Fairy, they've lived about five or six years on Gaia, thinking of it as where they were born.  
** **3 – Nope, they do not have the memories of the KH versions. On the other hand, it'll probably be like how Tron in DDD shares Tron from KH2's connection with Sora despite never having met him. He'll feel kinship when he meets Sora, but he won't know him at all.**

 _ **Chapter 8: Source of Darkness**_

Jaune had been giving Yang the stupid silent treatment for over an hour, just staring straight ahead while he walked down the road of the world they had landed on. It was dirt, surrounded by waving green grass that reminded Yang a lot of her home on Patch, a calm place with an undercurrent of... danger that persisted beneath everything. The Grimm were always present back home, so the woman wondered what besides the Heartless could be hiding on Gaia, and why that Darkness felt like it was from Remnant. She was hoping that, whatever it was, it would include some sort of evil she could defeat in half an hour while helping Jaune learn the lesson that she trusted him. Just like a... A cartoon. She groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose; a cartoon was her best plan so far? Why couldn't Ruby, Sora, or Jaune come up with one for her instead?

Oh right. Jaune was the problem.

"You know where we're heading?" Yang asked, deciding an attempt at breaking the tension was better than struggling with a problem she didn't know how to address yet.-

His response didn't come for a few moments. "No," he finally admitted curtly, then continued on in silence.

"O...kay," she muttered, scratching the back of her head. What could she do to... Her eyes lit up and she reached into her pocket. "You hungry? I've got a couple of Pumpkin Pete cereal bars I bought before we left!" Jaune stopped in his tracks and Yang grinned, tearing the two snacks out and waving them. This had to work. It _had_ to! The guy had remarked his Keyblade Armor looked like the rabbit on the packaging, so he must be a fellow addict!

"Not hungry." Then he continued walking.

Yang felt her stomach drop so hard it nearly fell into the ground. "No to Pumpkin Pete?" she asked under her breath as she stuffed one of the bars back into her pocket and tore the other one open. She took a large bite and shook her head, disappointed in him. "And I thought I had him!"

She ate quietly, walking a few steps behind Jaune the entire time they remained on the path. She usually loved these bars, so it was pretty disappointing that she didn't even really taste it, what with her mind being so fixated on figuring out a way to deal with her Jaune and OJ problem. Trust was something she and Vomit Boy didn't exactly have in abundance. While she knew he was sorry and she felt like she trusted him, it was no wonder that he believed no one could trust him. If he hadn't saved Ruby and nearly died because of it, she probably wouldn't trust him at all. But he had. She groaned and took another tasteless bite, then another. It wasn't long before she absently bit down and yelped in pain – she had chomped down harder than she had meant to on her metal prosthetic. She groaned and grabbed at her front teeth, rubbing them. She was trying... and failing... to alleviate the pain. "Ow..." she groaned before stuffing the empty wrapper back into her pocket.

"We're coming up on a town." Yang looked up and saw that Jaune had stopped in the middle of the road, at the top of a hill. He looked over his shoulder for a moment, then turned back and pointed ahead. Yang stomped up beside him, still rubbing her stinging teeth.

The town wasn't huge, and even the buildings weren't too large. They were small, maybe one or two stories each and all had matching red roofs with rusty pipes coming up from underground and connecting to each building. The roads were made of dirt, and didn't look nearly large enough for vehicles of any kind to move without hitting one row of buildings or the other almost constantly. Around a well stood a few such buildings, one of which looked to be an inn and was a little bit bigger than the other buildings in this square. These buildings were made to look even smaller by the presence of a massive mansion that rested up a flight of stairs in the shadows, a tiny fence separating it from the rest of the town even more than its shape and ambiance did. Yang got a bad feeling staring at that building, if a familiar one, and forced her eyes away from it to stare at the massive mountain that the village was nestled against, pipes streaming down its sides and likely transporting whatever fuel was pumping into the nearby homes.

There was a strange beauty to the small town, an odd juxtaposition of antiquated and modern borne from the buildings that were likely as old as the town itself in contrast with the industrial pipes that covered the buildings. "It's like the Dust channels in the old towns on the outskirts of the Kingdoms," Jaune noted, echoing the thoughts Yang herself was having.

"All of Port's and Oobleck's extra essays payin' off, huh?" Yang chuckled, meaning it as a joke.

Jaune... didn't take it that way. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I was an idiot," Jaune growled before turning back to the town. He huffed and began to walk down the winding pathway towards the town. "Come on."

Yang couldn't help herself at this point. There was a little voice in her head that said she shouldn't pick at Jaune, but he'd been acting like this long enough that she wasn't listening to it. "Fine, keep acting edgier than Kirito."

He turned and glared at her, but Yang just matched his glare with her own. "No? How about you stop acting shadier than a Heartless?" she said with a smirk. She was having fun now, as much as she wished she wasn't. And that she would be quiet.

"Stop it now, Yang," Jaune growled angrily. He jabbed his finger in her face.

"Then stop looking like you have less going on in that head of yours than when Salem was controlling you!" Yang snapped back at him. Internally: _Be. Quiet!_

"Yang, I'm warning you," Jaune shouted, shoving her.

Yang scoffed and shoved him back. "Don't shove me!" she snapped.

" _You_ don't shove _me!"_ Jaune yelled, shoving her once more despite her warning.

"I -" Yang and Jaune both froze as they heard an explosion. The two warriors gave each other a short, almost relieved, glance, then turned and sprinted towards the source of the noise. The Kingdom Key appeared in Jaune's outstretched hand and began to pump back and forth in time with his gait, while the gauntlets on Yang's hands sprung forward to guard her knuckles, the studs on her fists glinting in the light. The tension of their verbal spar remained, but these two were Huntsmen. Or, they would be if their world hadn't almost fallen apart. At the very least they were professionals that could put their egos aside to help people, just as they had been trained to do.

Jaune leaped into action as soon as they got close. Heartless were crowding a group of three people, all young men with varying levels of armor and weaponry. Two had massive swords. Unwieldy, really, to the point that Jaune and Yang both wondered how they were even using them. One was a sword almost a foot wide and somewhere between five and six feet long wielded by a black haired man with a small grin. The other, a katana well over six feet long held by a man with white hair reaching down to the middle of his back. More intriguingly, both of the men wielded their humongous weapons in a single hand. The other individual was far less impressive, wielding only some kind of gun whose projectiles passed uselessly through the Heartless – Invisibles, if Jaune remembered Sora's stories right.

Jaune jumped at the nearest Heartless, raising the Keyblade in both hands above his head, and decided to help out the struggling gunman first, as he seemed to have almost double the Heartless attacking him that the man with the wide blade did and less skill than the similarly threatened white haired warrior. The first Heartless was destroyed as it turned towards its new prey and an actual threat, a Keyblade Wielder. The others, however, quickly turned and moved towards him, with a few of the Heartless held at bay by the giant sword electing to hunt Jaune instead.

For once, they didn't seem to be a problem in the least. He was calm, even if he was taking out his anger with Yang on the monsters. They were still dangerous, but he knew it was nothing he couldn't handle. He deflected swords and dodged ax-like tails before their blades could slice through his neck. He even got in a few hits that sent Invisibles disappearing into the Darkness with their purified Hearts rising into the sky. The man with the gun gasped when he saw this new phenomenon, leaving him wide open to an attack. Jaune was about to leap into action when Yang appeared, the Heartless she had been attacking killed quickly through her efforts and those of the two swordsmen. Her bracers took the blow and she threw her arms to the side. The sword flew from the Heartless' hand, leaving it wide open to a huge Katana piercing its chest. The other sword flew around in a massive circle, trailing Light as it went, and carved the rest of the small contingent to pieces.

"Impressive work," the white haired man said as the last Heartless exploded into a cloud of Darkness. He glanced between Jaune and Yang before sweeping his massive Katana out to the side and sheathing it in a single movement. "Though, I have to wonder how two random travelers would have the skills to fight like SOLDIERs."

"I'm just that good," she said, grinning and tossing a flirty wave at the white haired man.

He smiled softly back. "I'm sure. I'm Sephiroth, Miss..."

"Yang Xiao Long," she responded with a wink while Jaune got a sudden, unnerving pit in his stomach. He didn't know why, but he didn't like this guy much. "To people I like, it's just Yang." The feeling in Jaune's gut redoubled with disgust.

"I'm Zack Fair, and this Cloud," the black haired guy said, a whide smile on his face. He gestured at the guy wearing the helmet, who had taken a few, nervous steps back to stare anxiously at the newcomers. "He's... learning."

"And you?" Sephiroth asked, turning his attention from Yang and to Jaune.

His response was curt as he narrowed his eyes at the white haired man, "Jaune."

Sephiroth frowned upon noticing the look on Jaune's face, but caught himself and became professional and calm once more. "It's a pleasure." He looked over at Yang again and said, "Though you didn't tell us where you learned to fight like that."

"Oh, come on, they aren't bandits. They helped us after all!" Zack pointed out. He walked up beside Sephiroth and clapped his back. "Maybe they're allies, right?"

"They aren't dressed like SOLDIERs," Cloud pointed out, his first words since Yang and Jaune had showed up. Everyone's eyes turned on him and he glanced down. "Uh, Sirs."

"What did I say about – Ugh, never mind, Cloud," Zack muttered with a shrug.

Sephiroth grunted. "He makes a good point. In fact... their dress doesn't fit in with anywhere I've ever visited for Shinra," he said, pointing at the two.

"We're from far away. Just passing through – travelers," Jaune said before Yang could answer. He held up his finger. "Probably just for the day, then we're on our way."

"Heh, rhyming," Yang muttered.

"Well, if you're gonna be here that long, we could use the help," Zack said, sliding his hands together behind his head. Jaune blinked, as he for a moment felt as if he had seen Sora. Well, this guy he liked. "And you two seem like you've fought these things before."

"Heartless," Jaune said. Zack and Sephiroth raised their eyebrows at the word, confused as to what he meant. "They're called Heartless. They devour people's Hearts and make more of them. The stronger the Heart, the better."

"That would explain the disappearances filed in Nibelheim over the past four months, as well as the spike in the population of these... Heartless you said?" Sephiroth asked for clarification. Jaune didn't respond, so Yang elbowed him in the side and he nodded. "Hm... given the amount of attention these creatures give the three of us – Cloud and I in particular – it might be best if we have another pair to help us distract and destroy these creatures... I second your offer, Zack."

"Oh... So, in normal words, you want their help?" Zack asked jokingly. He looked back at Yang and Jaune. "Well, what do you say? I'm guessing you're hunting them down, too, if you know so much about them."

"Sure," Jaune said, giving Zack a thumbs up.

"Wouldn't miss it," Yang said at the same time, winking at Sephiroth. She snapped her fingers. "Just let me get a photo of your swords! My sister's a nut about weapons, and she wouldn't forgive me if I didn't show her your guys' crazy blades!"

"He used a Key," Cloud pointed at Jaune while Zack shrugged and took out his sword, twirling it around and letting it lay across his shoulders. Sephiroth simply turned to the side to give full view of his massive blade.

"Ah, been there seen that," Yang said with a wave of her hand before taking out her Scroll and snapping a pic of the two men. "Keyblades are powerful, but she has one of those!"

"Yang," Jaune hissed, not liking that she was revealing their secrets. Even if Zack seemed trustworthy, and Cloud... quiet, he didn't like Sephiroth. He shook his head to clear his head – he was acting like Yang now, not trusting someone because of a gut feeling. But still, Jaune felt like he couldn't trust the man.

"Powerful, you say?" Sephiroth said, his eyes focusing on the weapon in Jaune's hand. The blonde glared at Sephiroth until the white haired man's eyes drifted up to Jaune's. The Keyblade vanished from his hand a moment later. "How does one go about getting one?"

"Luck."

"Willpower."

Jaune and Yang glanced at one another. "Willpower."

"Luck."

"Both," they finally agreed.

Jaune bit his lip. "So, what is it you need help with? It can't just be killing Heartless, you took them out like they weren't even there," he pointed out to the three warriors. He glanced at Cloud and felt kinship with the man – he knew how it felt to be the weakest person on a team. He still felt like that sometimes.

"The creatures have yet to appear anywhere else within the Shinra Corporation's sphere of influence, which leads us to believe that something within Nibelheim itself is responsible for bringing the creatures here, if not outright creating them. Specialists like yourselves will be a great help in discovering what that might be and neutralizing it completely," Sephiroth stated, a professional veneer covering his features once more.

Zack nodded and said sheepishly, "Yeah, we're kind of out of our depth here. I'm used to fighting... people, the occasional monster, not things that can let bullets go through them as a method of dodging. On top of that, when we arrived in Nibelheim last night we didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Whatever these things are, they started hiding again until a couple hours ago."

"We la – arrived a couple hours ago," Yang said, sheepish at her near screw up. It had been... a quiet walk.

"Weird," Zack said.

"Quite a coincidence," Sephiroth muttered, though his eyes locked on Jaune again.

"Yup," Jaune muttered nervously when he saw the man's hand drift towards his katana. He looked over at Yang, hoping for some help... but saw she wasn't offering any. Probably made sense, given what had been going down between them recently. "Coincidence..."

"Hey, don't scare them, Seph!" Zack castigated his partner, jumping beside Jaune and grabbing his shoulders. "You get weird when you're all business, so chill."

Sephiroth smiled softly. "Right. My apologies," he said with a slight bow of his head. He glanced around. "I suppose we should split into groups."

"Dibs!" Yang shouted, grabbing Sephiroth's arm. The white haired man blushed slightly.

Zack laughed and rolled his eyes. "Nice, Seph," he said, tossing his partner a thumbs up. "I guess I'll take Cloud and Jaune, then. If anything big shows up though, Seph and I'll cover it. Cloud'll get people out of the way and you two can search for the source."

Jaune felt unsure about this plan. "Yang, how about -"

"BYE, SEE YOU SOON! WE'LL SEARCH THE FAR SIDE OF THE TOWN!"

Jaune sighed and watched her drag the white haired man away, a pit of anxiety rising as he realized something – she had decided not to team with him because she didn't trust him. His gaze fell, forlorn, to the ground. Right... "So, I guess we're the side of Nibelheim closest to us. Ready for some fun, Jaune?" Zack asked, a good natured grin on his face. Cloud stood nervously nearby.

Jaune looked up and forced a smile, knowing Sora wouldn't let this get him down. "Y-yep. So excited."

Why did Jaune feel like Yang was in more danger than him when she didn't even have a Keyblade calling to every Heartless in a three world radius? He hoped he could remember soon; even if she didn't trust him, he trusted her with his life. She was his friend after all.

 _ **S M H S**_

Yang was having a _lot_ of fun with Sephiroth, which made her glad she had chosen this world out of the Cosmic Hat, so to speak. Even if Jaune still didn't believe she trusted him by the end of this, at least they had made a few good friends. Cute ones and good fighters, at that. Since separating from the rest of the group, she and Sephiroth had quickly made their way towards the far side of the town and had been beset by Heartless nearly ever step they took. Her mind briefly turned to Jaune, wondering if she had screwed up by deciding to partner up with someone else. She shook her head and returned her attention to the Angel Star Heartless that was fluttering its purple and blue crystalline wings as a large sphere of white energy formed in front of the emblem across its light bulb-like body. Yang waited for the attack to come her way, the energy burning through the air towards her until she raised her right fist and slammed it forward, coated in energy of her own. The Light on her fist collided with that of the projectile, and the ball of energy flew back at twice the speed and size towards the Heartless, enveloping the monster completely and turning it into little more than a smoky cloud of Darkness.

She stumbled to the side when a blade slashed across her left side, her Aura deflecting most of the blow's force and saving her. She growled at herself, angry she would let herself get hit, and turned to face the Heartless that attacked her. It was one of the Ronin Heartless, like she had seen attacking in Soul Society, its blade coated in flames. _Well, let's fight fire with fire!_ She snapped inwardly, already coating her foot in flames as she brought it up and snapped her leg straight through the creature's head, leaving behind only a fiery explosion atop its shoulders. Yang grabbed the sword from its hand and threw it at a third Heartless, a new one she'd never heard Sora describe before. It was about three feet tall, with a bright red head, glowing yellow eyes, and a pinkish body backed with a pair of tiny, devil like wings that matched the red horns sprouting from its skull like visage. The blade collided with the creature's chest, where the image of the Heartless' emblem burned an angry purple.

Yang immediately grimaced, as the creature suddenly shot up three feet, the horns on its head elongating and growing more cruel. Claws sprouted from its tiny hands and a long, demon tail from its spine, all coated in Darkness. The blade in its chest remained, Darkness leaking from the wound like blood. "Uh... Oh, you precocious little devil," Yang muttered jovially. This did not make the creature happier, as it stomped ever more wrathfully – she immediately knew that was it's name, Wrath – towards her. She gritted her teeth and launched a Firaga at the creature, and the fire burst across its flesh. The blade within the Heartless emblem warped and melted into slag within its body and at its feet. The more unnerving change was that the Heartless had grown again, growing another two feet and its claws stretching to the length of short swords. Fangs sprouted from its skull-like jaw to mirror the now jagged horns at the top of its head. The Wrath took a step towards the young woman and swiped its hand, now the size of a child, at her. She raised her hands to try and block the blow, only to be thrown through the air.

Meanwhile, Sephiroth was dealing with a large contingent of Heartless all by himself. His blade flashed around like lightning as it deflected the dozens of attacks that flew towards him from every side. Ronin's blades flew upward as they lunged at him, but he was forced to move on to deflect the next attack before he could capitalize on his defense when an Angel Star launched a trio of tornadoes at him. He jumped between the swirling tunnels of wind with an almost angelic level of grace, not even his hair being disturbed by the wind based attacks. He lunged forward at the Angel Star, only for the blow to be taken by a three foot tall bundle of red and pink. The Wrath grew in place, now almost twelve feet tall from this single blow, and slammed down with both hands at the swordsman at its feet. He simply raised his blade above him, the sword taking the full force of the attack and cleanly slicing the claws off. The Wrath roared in pain and rage as it stumbled back, not noticing that Sephiroth was grinning like a madman. "You can't hope to measure to me!" he shouted, and his blade rocketed forward. The Wrath fell apart, disappearing into shadow a moment later. Sephiroth was already onto his next enemy, bisecting the Ronin before taking out a pair of Angel Stars. He would be done very soon.

Yang rolled to her feet after being hit by the Wrath, barely paying attention to the fact that her Aura had been knocked out by about a third. She instead focused on how angry she was that she let that thing hit her. The blonde's hair erupted upward, a stream of deep, burning red flowing from her shoulders like lave before settling into its usual glowing yellow. Her eyes shifted into a blood red and she lowered her fists to her side. "You hit hard, huh?" she asked the wrath as it lumbered towards her. It, of course, didn't respond. "I bet I hit harder." She sprinted forward and left behind a trail of fire that burned momentarily on the grass. "COMET!" A ball of energy formed within Yang's hands, growing until an actual, physical comet erupted from her fists. The Wrath continued to lumber towards her and the massive spell she had just cast, until it suddenly wasn't there anymore. The Wrath's feet remained on the ground, but the rest of its body had been vaporized completely by the magical comet now streaking miles into the sky.

Sephiroth watched the attack arc through the air as he took out the last of the Ronin that were attacking him. "Impressive," Sephiroth noted, stepping beside Yang, whose hair was still burning an angry yellow. "Meteor magic is difficult to use at all."

Yang turned and smiled, the fire disappearing and her eyes turning lilac once more. "You weren't so bad yourself," she said with a smirk.

"I've always been the strongest," Sephiroth noted nonchalantly. "With little effort, I have defeated all that sought to undo me." He frowned. "I am above it all. Them all..."

"Eh, I thought that once, too," Yang said, throwing her left arm over his shoulders. Sephiroth snapped out of his dark thoughts and looked in surprise over at the blonde woman hanging onto him. She raised her prosthetic arm in front of his face. "Things change eventually."

"Hm," Sephiroth grunted, unsure.

Yang rolled her eyes and said, "Look, if it'd make you feel better, I could always get my friend Sora to come here. He'd take you down easy." She slapped his back. "He has a Keyblade, and he's actually good with it." Yang shut her eyes and grinned as she thought of Jaune. The grin faltered and she stared at the ground intently. He was good with it. Sometimes. Ugh... She tried to make a pun to ease her thoughts. She looked up with eyes still closed. "He's key to showing you how strong a Keyblade is!"

Sephiroth's face fell, jealousy and hunger crossing it for a moment. Then, it was gone, shoved away by the man's conscience. "Well, I'd be glad to test my mettle like that," he said, his face back to the calm it usually carried.

Yang's eyes opened up and she smiled at him. "I'll try to set it up sometime," she promised, grinning widely.

The blonde opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by a sudden explosion of Darkness beyond the edge of town. She turned and stared, slack jawed, at the monster. It's eyes turned and met hers for the briefest moment before swerving further and locking on the mansion that rested at the base of the mountain. "That's, uh... That's a big Heartless," the brawler mumbled, a streak of fear running through her.

"Go find Jaune and look for the source," Sephiroth demanded, drawing his long Katana. "I will meet Zack and deal with this creature."

"If finding the source'll get rid of that, I'll see you soon!" Yang shouted, turning and running through town. She was sure Jaune had figured out where the monster was going already, he wasn't bad at stuff like that. This meant she had to figure it out. "Come on, come on..." Her eyes locked on the mansion at the edge of town. "Bingo." She bent down into the wind and sprinted as fast as she could towards Shinra Manor.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune stood back to back with this Cloud guy, wondering why that name and everything going on around him gave him the feeling that he'd read a book or seen a movie about all this once. He was forced to stop thinking about that when one of the Wraths circling in on Cloud tried to jump for the gunman's back. Jaune jumped between them and raised his Keyblade, deflecting the attack and causing the tiny demon Heartless to fly back to the ground. He'd learned very quickly not to attack these creatures when one of them – now seven or so feet tall – had started growing with every hit. Instead, he was going to take out all of the other Heartless first, like the large deployment of Ronin and a few accompanying Angel Stars, before going after the four Wraths. And, of course, he'd focus on those one at a time. It'd be stupid to try anything other than that.

Jaune turned from the recoiling Wrath and slashed sideways at the closest Ronin, bisecting it with the blow and giving him a little more breathing room. With that one dead, he was only left with the three remaining Wraths, four Ronin, and a pair of Angel Stars. "Thanks for the save," Cloud muttered under his breath as he tried – and failed – to take out another of the Heartless.

"No problem!" Jaune shouted, throwing himself in between the Heartless that Cloud had been aiming at and the gunman himself. The Keyblade came up and the monster bounced off of Jaune's guard, stunned momentarily. Jaune was still off balance from moving so quickly, however, so his counter blow was far from graceful, and nowhere near enough to deal any meaningful damage to the – what kind of Heartless was this again?

Jaune kicked himself as he realized that the creature of Darkness he had just slapped across the ground was one of the smaller Wraths. The creature struggled for a moment to get to its feet, then began to grow until it stood half a foot shorter than Jaune. Had he said it would be stupid to fight them all at the same time? Well, he was learning fighting two at the same time was stupid enough! Two pairs of large claws slammed into the ground where he was standing, but he had been able to move before they could hit him. Pulling Cloud out of the way, Jaune fought against the frustration growing in his mind with every attack that sent him further off balance. He blocked a Ronin's blade and shoved, sending it tumbling backwards.

He took a breath. He needed to be calm so he could study their predicament carefully while also dodging and blocking to keep the both of them safe. The Wraths lumbered after him, much slower than their smaller counterparts. "Follow me," he told Cloud, grabbing the gunman's arm and yanking to show him where to go. The man nodded and sprinted behind Jaune, moving across the battlefield, dodging attacks, and occasionally launching their own as they sprinted directly at the nine foot tall Wrath. "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!" Jaune was equal parts praying it would work and casting the spell with each word, and was beyond happy when three small albeit powerful Fire spells exploded from the end of the Kingdom Key. Each one spiraled towards the largest wrath and slammed into its chest, sending burning sparks trailing around its body and burning where it had collided.

The Wrath roared in a way that would make its namesake proud and grew to nearly twelve feet. Jaune hoped it would do. Without a glance over his shoulder at Cloud, he commanded, "Slide between its legs!" Then he fell to his back and his momentum carried him under and past the creature. He dug his heels into the dirt and the momentum pushed him up to his feet, while placing a large, impenetrable wall behind him and removing the largest threat on the field from play. Cloud came to his feet soon after, laughing slightly that he'd pulled the move off. Jaune knew that Cloud would at least understand why they were behind the slow, lumbering creature. The two of them began to move to the side when the Wrath tried to turn around, and the creature snapped angrily again.

Jaune caught the blade of a Ronin on his Keyblade and let it slide to the ground, at which point he bisected the Heartless and stepped to the side again so as to remain directly behind the Wrath. "Your gun isn't doing much, Cloud. It draws their attention, so for now just tell me where they're coming from," Jaune said before the next Heartless began to come in. The warrior's head fell for a moment before he looked up and nodded dutifully.

"Above!" Cloud told the blonde, and Jaune glanced in that direction to see a burning sphere of energy flying from one of the two remaining angel stars.

"On it!" Jaune raised the Keyblade above his shoulder and tossed it directly at the ball, the blade spinning like a saw until it slammed into the orb. The sphere flew back towards the creature that had sent it, and Jaune summoned his Keyblade back to his hand to defend against the Heartless to his left that Cloud had warned him off. A Wrath. Jaune simply raised his Keyblade defensively and the monster bounced back, undamaged but deterred momentarily. Cloud warned him again of a monster coming in from his right, and Jaune turned to bisect the Ronin before moving quickly to cut another pair in half. That was the last of them, which left only a single Angel Star and the entire group of four Wraths.

Jaune looked up at the last Angel star, the creature floating back and fluttering erratically in the air. It was avoiding conflict, if only for a moment. Jaune decided immediately on a change of plans. "Keep an eye on that Angel Star. I'll deal with the Wraths," he told Cloud, before turning his Kingdom Key around and burying it deep in the body of the Heartless behind him. The creature immediately hissed and exploded, a crystal heart rising to the air. Jaune moved towards the next tallest of the creatures and delivered a two handed blow to its chest before jumping away. The creature countered empty air as it grew to full size, its massive claw slamming into the ground. Jaune sprinted forward before it could lift its hand, jumping atop it before jumping again and burying his blade in its head. The monster disappeared. "Hey, I'm doing pretty goo -"

"Above you!"

Jaune looked up and immediately cursed his words. A bright blue ball from the Angel Star crashed into his side and sent him straight into the ground. "Ow..." he groaned, forcing himself up. He spun awkwardly, barely hearing Cloud's warning of the Wrath coming up behind him. The creature's claws narrowly missed his Aura protected body. Jaune was lucky the creature was still small, otherwise it would have hit him too.

This dodge had given him the time he needed to recenter himself and focus on what was going on. His Keyblade flew back into his hand and he looked up at the Angel Star fluttering away above him. A flash of anger ran through his gut at the creature managing to hit him. "I'm going to kill that real quick," he said.

"What?" Cloud asked.

But Jaune had already jumped straight at the Angel Star, his feet carrying far higher than he had ever jumped before. SO high, in fact, that he was soon at the same height as the Heartless itself. The creature's wings widened in some semblance of surprise before it tried to slam its wings shut in an impenetrable shield. It didn't work, as the Keyblade slammed into the top of the creature before it could defend itself. The Heartless hit the ground much as Jaune had just moments earlier, dust exploding up around it. Jaune landed on top of it before it could recover, tip of his blade suddenly buried within its light bulb shaped body. The Heartless shrieked in pain and disappeared.

Jaune turned towards the nearest Wrath and slashed at it, sending it rolling backwards as it grew. "Behind you!" He turned with Cloud's warning and slammed his Keyblade down on top of the second Wrath. It grew while face down in the dirt, so Jaune jumped atop its back and delivered another blow that left the creature at full size. The first Wrath came back, claws gleaming with Dark fire as it slashed at him. Jaune blocked one of the attacks and countered, causing the monster to recoil, off balance, before he attacked once, twice more. The creature disappeared. Jaune took a moment to smile at how well he was doing before turning and –

He was laying on his back in the dirt now, holding his Keyblade above him to prevent the Wrath from flattening him. "Jaune!" Cloud shouted. He looked over at Zack, who was still fighting nearly a dozen Ronin and a Wrath of his own. He cursed and turned back to fire at the Wrath holding Jaune down. The beams of energy passed uselessly through the creature. "I... I can't kill it!"

Jaune grunted in exertion against the Wrath, that streak of anger gone. In its place was just the struggle against the monster's claws pressing down upon him. "Cloud, you have to kill it! I can't get out of this right now!"

"I can't!" Cloud shouted desperately.

Jaune growled as the claws weighed down on him even more. "You can! Just... Ergh... Look, be confident. You want to save people, right? Focus on that, focus on your Light, and put it in your weapon. Save me!"

Cloud blinked and bit his lip. Finally, he raised his weapon and focused on his desire to save people. He had to save Jaune... The weapon in his hands glowed for a moment then the warrior pulled the trigger. Streams of Light flew out of the muzzle and collided with the side of the Wrath – Cloud nearly dropped his weapon in excitement. It had actually collided with the Wrath!

The Heartless turned its head towards Cloud, noticing that he was now a small threat. It grew about a foot and its claws flattened Jaune. "Oh, no," Cloud muttered when the creature stood up and began to clomp menacingly towards him. Cloud stepped backwards, scrabbling away from the creature. He fired his weapon, but with his focus broken the weapon no longer injured the Heartless. The creature finally caught up to him and raised one of its claws, ready to kill the young man.

A flash of Dark, and Cloud shut his eyes. He was dead. He had to be dead. He – He opened one eye beneath his helmet to see Jaune, disheveled and more bruised than hurt, standing with his Keyblade in one hand. The bisected halves of the Wrath were turning to smoke, sliced cleanly apart by the weapon in Jaune's hand. "That... was actually pretty good. Just keep firing next time?" he suggested. "Take it from someone who has had to work _so hard_ to get anything done, this was a really good start." The Keyblade vanished from his hand and he fell to his back, not noticing that Zack had finally destroyed the Heartless attacking him and had walked over.

"You hit one, Cloud? Awesome!" he congratulated his friend and team mate. He slapped him on the back. "First class here you come!"

"Could you not shout my name... Tifa might hear you..." Cloud mumbled, looking around for someone.

"Ohh... A girl, huh?" Zack said, half mockingly. He grabbed Cloud with his elbow and brought him close. "I know how that feels. Me and Ae -" He was cut off by a sudden explosion of Darkness beyond the edge of the town, massive in size. From the portal came a massive creature, taller than any building. "Oh, crud..."

The monster looked terrifying, holding a twisted, blackened trident in one hand and a spiked, cruel shield graced by the emblem of the Heartless in the other. A gaping maw filled with Darkness and cruel teeth rested between the front pair of its four, lion like legs. Like a centaur, a second body from which the arms sprouted rested above the maw. It had long spines of fur arching down its back and a single burnt and blackened angel wing coming from one shoulder. Its face was like that of a Grimm, with a long snout, yellow eyes, and a plate of bone that ran down its back between the spines of fur. Tendrils of Darkness whipped about at the creature's back behind its legs, Dark spells flying from each tentacle like appendage. The monster looked straight at Cloud for a moment, cocking its head to the side, then turned further to stare at the manor beyond the town.

"Find Yang. Seph and I'll deal with this," Zack told the Keyblade wielder. Jaune nodded and turned to sprint off, hearing Zack continue as he ran. "Cloud, you help evacuate everyone in town during the battle. We'll try to kill it before hand, but..."

"Sir!"

"And no 'Sirs!'"

Jaune ran towards the mansion, taking the stairs leading up to it two at a time. He took a half moment to cast a glance over his shoulder to see the giant Heartless was still fixated on the mansion. "I'm glad I thought the same thing you did." Jaune turned and found Yang was running up from the other side of the mansion's entrance. She slid to a stop right in front of him and raised her hand. "High five."

Jaune glared at her for a moment, then shook his head and turned towards the mansion. "How were things with your crush?" he asked coolly.

Yang opened her mouth to reply, but Jaune had already run off. She rolled her eyes and took off after him. "Why, you jealous?" she asked when she caught up to him, smirking the entire time.

"Wha – No!" Jaune snapped, casting an angry eyed glare at her once again.

Yang rolled her eyes. "I know that, Vomit Boy. It was a joke." Then they moved into the building, past its open doors, and into the pitch black of the manor. With a sigh, Yang lifted her hand and coated it in flames that illuminated the room around them. The foyer was huge, and mostly empty save for destroyed furniture and debris scattered about. "Are we still on this whole 'Angry Jaune' thing?" she wondered, garnering an angry grunt from the young man. "Oh... Guess so."

"I'm not..." Jaune sighed and shook his head before electing to remain silent and look for whatever it was that had drawn the giant Heartless' attention.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Sephiroth is a pretty cool guy, you know." Jaune rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Yang. "I don't know why you don't like him."

"I got a bad gut feeling from him, okay?" Jaune said angrily.

"Oh, I get a bad gut feeling and I'm bad, but you do it and I'm supposed to listen?" Yang asked.

"No, I -" the two froze and saw a shadow flit across the room. They sprinted after it together and eventually finding a ladder heading straight down into the Darkness. Jaune took a breath and jumped down, Yang not far behind him. The two landed in a series of caves filled with Darkness. "Where did it go?"

"There!" Yang shouted, her flaming finger pointed towards what Jaune now saw was a Ronin. The two humans sprinted after the creature once more, through winding caves and between spires of stone that stretched to the ceiling. The Heartless always remained a few steps ahead, trying to escape and taking a long, winding route, but never able to lose its tails. Eventually, it pounced through a wall and Jaune ran face first into it, at which point Yang ran face first into his back.

"Ow..." He groaned pushing off of the wall and forcing the blonde woman to step back. He examined the wall, ignoring Yang's apology, and smiled. This wasn't a wall, it was a – "Door!"

Yang looked up and shrugged, then tried to shove the door open. "Well, it's locked, and I know I can't take it down."

"I can just open it," Jaune pointed out, frowning. He summoned the Keyblade and tapped it nonchalantly against the wall, at which point the door flew open. "Duh."

"Duh. Right," Yang said, laughing. The Keyblade's weird powers always slipped her mind, seeing as it was almost always just used to kill monsters. She followed Jaune into the new room, ready to fight any Heartless that came their way.

Instead, they only found the single Ronin looking frantically around for something. They watched it go for a moment, then lashed out and destroyed the creature. "So, it's in here isn't it?" Jaune wondered aloud. He summoned a flame to the tip of the Keyblade and began to explore the room. He and Yang soon discovered that the room was a laboratory, one that was no longer in use though unlike the building above only looked like it had been abandoned for four or five years rather than decades.

"Look, I know you don't trust Sephiroth. But if you need proof, I told him Sora could come and give him a real fight. Maybe Professor Ozpin could come and tell you you have nothing to worry about," Yang suggested. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, smiling smugly at her plan. "And then we'll go find OJ and we can find out who's right there."

Jaune turned, something clicking in his head. "You what?"

"Told him he could fight Sora. What, you worried he'll win?" Yang asked. She snorted. "As if."

"No, I – Sephiroth, I know why I keep getting a bad feeling about him. Sora _fought_ Sephiroth!" Jaune explained, the memory of the story coming to the forefront of his mind. It had been told long ago, probably before they'd left Vale for Haven Academy.

Yang stared skeptically at Jaune. "You've never heard this story?" Jaune asked. The woman shook her head. "He told Ruby, Me, Ren, and Nora about it one day while we were traveling. Before – Look, Sephiroth was a monster. Corrupted, and the Darkness incarnate of... Cloud. Dammit, I should have noticed earlier!" He slapped his forehead and groaned. "How could I forget!?"

Yang shook her head. "So what? Even if Sora did fight _a_ Sephiroth and help _a_ Cloud, that was over a thousand years ago! There's no way this guy is the same guy."

"I... No, but... Ozpin said Hearts were in a cycle of rebirth, right? What if this Cloud and this Sephiroth are connected in the same way, Light and Darkness that are going to fight?" Jaune posited in an effort to explain his bad feeling. "Besides, Sephiroth is off. He keeps staring at the Keyblade like a starving Beowolf!" Yang scoffed and turned away, annoyed with his lack of trust, ironically. "What, Yang, you'll trust a total stranger but not someone with my face?"

"Sephiroth hasn't done anything!" she snapped, whirling on him. "OJ did something bad. He could have killed someone just so he could bring someone back who is dead. That isn't right!"

Jaune snarled at quietly himself and turned, slamming his fist into the nearest desktop. Dust flew upward, revealing papers he had overlooked. Jaune glanced over at Yang, thinking about calling to her, but stopped. He should read it first. He... he didn't want to talk to her anyways.

"Day 325. Both of the subjects continue to reveal a great deal about the makeup of this world. Subject Cloud is far less physically skilled than Subject Sephiroth is, though seems much more mentally stable than his counterpart. This trade might be due to the nature of these beings as separate halves, the Light and Dark of a single Heart both given a Will and a Body of their own. Nonetheless, there seems to be some sort of bleedover. Light from Cloud seeps into Sephiroth to control his darkest desires and make him cold and efficient instead of the insane beast he was months ago, while the Darkness once held by Sephiroth ignites feelings of inadequacy and rage within Cloud. This alone is fascinating enough, but our carbon dating tests lead me to believe these two are _older_ than our world. The town above has distinct memories of Cloud, as if he had always been a member of their home and I myself find memories of Sephiroth and his prior adventures as a SOLDIER of Shinra returning every day. This is fascinating: the memories of an entire World are being manipulated and shaped to fit in with these two, if the world was not simply created in a way that makes the Subjects a part of its history. I believe that the Hearts of those on Gaia were selected because, in some prior life, they held importance to these two. It would be less difficult to fit memories of Cloud and Sephiroth in to Hearts that, even if it was long ago, remain familiar with them. I wonder if this has anything to do with the Black Materia stored in-"

"Yang. Yang!" Jaune turned, gripping the page. He was worried, his face contorted in fear. Enough so that he shoved his own anger with her from his mind. "Yang, you're going to want to read this."

She raised an eyebrow, but walked towards him silently. She tore the page from his hand, obviously still annoyed with him, and read through the page. Her features softened as she went through the information until, finally, she said, "We should tell him."

"W-what? Yang, this _is_ the same Sephiroth!" Jaune hissed. He pointed out of the lab. "If we tell him... Yang, Sora said Sephiroth was _insane_. Completely insane! He thought he was a god, and that was before he was older than the world he was in!"

"And this is a guy without those memories who hasn't done any of that. We can trust him." Yang was resolute, unwilling to budge on trusting the warrior. Did she flirt with him? Yes, but she did that with everybody, mostly just to put them off kilter and have some fun. And when they didn't, she liked someone who didn't get unsettled so easy. But she also believed this was right.

"Yang, he is pure Darkness, that's what that says. We can't trust pure Darkness to read this and think anything other than, 'I must be a god.'" Jaune tried to grab her shoulders, only for her to slap his hands away. He gritted his teeth and put his fists at his sides. "Yang, please, just trust me."

"I... trust him, Jaune."

"But not me!?"

"You? Jaune, you're not OJ. He helped Aizen, you didn't!"

"And he's going to fix it," Jaune stated simply.

Yang sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Doesn't matter."

"Yang –!" He cut himself off before he could say anything that he'd regret.

"Is something wrong?" The two whirled on the source of the voice and found Sephiroth, his white hair and blue eyes glowing against the pitch Darkness of the lab.

Jaune looked at Yang, his eyes begging _please_. She shook her head and told him, "I'd want to know, Jaune. We have to, because it's right to give someone the benefit of the doubt."

"You hypocrite!" Jaune hissed as the woman walked towards Sephiroth. "You can't just trust my judgement _once_!? Where's my or OJ's benefit of the doubt!?"

She ignored his angry hissing without hearing his words and walked up to Sephiroth. "Look, we found something."

"You found the source?" Sephiroth asked, eyes wide. "That's good."

Yang grimaced. "No, it's about you." She held the paper out. "You deserve to know."

Sephiroth's eyebrow raised as he took the report. He raised it and began to read through, the eyebrow slowly falling and a dull look filling his eyes. Jaune walked up, worry growing in his gut, but knowing it was too late to change anything. Eventually: "I see. Thank you." The paper crumpled and was slipped into Sephiroth's pocket. He stared at the two. "I... I have much to think about." Then he turned and left without another word.

"I hope that was worth it, Yang," Jaune said under his breath, the hunt for the Source forgotten for the night in the excitement.

 _ **S M H S**_

The rest of the night had been spent in quiet, the both in their room at the inn glaring at each other. Jaune was angry with Yang, more so even than when they had landed on Gaia. She would trust strangers over him. He supposed he understood, though. He didn't even trust himself. He wasn't worth the trust, the effort it would take. He'd betrayed his friends and he'd barely even tried to make it better. If he were Yang he certainly wouldn't trust his own judgment, but... But it still made him mad! OJ was better than him, he'd helped his friends. Even if OJ had failed, he was a good guy. One that deserved trust because he was actually trying to make up for his mistakes. Yang, though, Yang wouldn't see that! She wouldn't see that she was being a hypocrite, going to any lengths to bring her mother back from the dead but hating OJ for wanting to find a Pyrrha that never died in the first place! God, he hated her!

Jaune went to bed angry with Yang, who still struggled with a way to show Jaune she trusted him without going against what she believed. She was right after all! About all of this! Why couldn't he just accept that her judgment was miles better than his and – she sighed. She'd been terrible to him today. She hadn't done anything to make this any better, had she? She turned in bed and stared at the other bed, where Jaune rested. "I'm sorry," she said. She was met by silence; Jaune was already asleep. She turned back to stare at the ceiling and shut her eyes. Maybe things would be better the next day.

They woke up in the earliest of the morning hours, before the sun had come up in the sky of Gaia to wake anyone up, to the smell of smoke and the eerie orange glow of fire. Jaune jumped out of bed, still clad in his clothes, and laced up his boot. He liked the feeling of the armor on his body, it made him feel safe when he wondered what was about to go wrong. He was glad he hadn't changed. Yang was already awake, dressed once again. "What's going on?" she asked the Keyblade wielder.

He looked up, a wave of sorrow washing over him. He suddenly felt so... terrible for hating Yang. But he couldn't apologize. He wasn't in the wrong. "I don't know."

A scream from outside and the rustling of Heartless cut through the silence, and the two ran out of the inn, ready for any danger except that which they would soon face.


	9. The Beam of Thine Own Eye

**AN: Howdy!**

 **Sorry it's been so long. My college has a late move in day and I just got back. So I was enjoying my last days with my family up till now.**

 **Anyways, responses!**

 **To G3r1k: More than one person, probably.**

 **To gamelover41592: Hey, there's no such thing as late! I'm just glad you're here. Thanks, I hope it lives up to the potential you see in it.**

 **Well, enjoy. Please leave a review – praise, questions, or criticism. As long as you don't curse, I'm game.**

 _ **Chapter 9: The Beam of Thine Own Eye**_

"What the hell's going on?!" Yang shouted as she and Jaune sprinted out of the inn, flames consuming every building around them. Villagers ran from their homes, screaming and terrified of what was going on. Yang and Jaune froze momentarily when they saw that most of the people weren't getting away: Heartless were erupting from the shadows cast by the smoke and fire, their claws glinting in the dim light before they jumped into the screaming crowds, cutting civilians down and tearing the Hearts out of anyone they reached. Jaune and Yang didn't even think about jumping in, they just did it.

Yang sprinted towards a man and a young woman, maybe his daughter. There was a Wrath and a pair of Ronin advancing on the family. Yang jumped between them to protect the man and woman and took to work. She landed a punch on one of the Ronin before it could respond and her fist crashed into its faceplate, shattering it before her hand plunged into its head and caused it to explode in a violent burst of black smoke. She turned her attention to the next Ronin, but her fist sailed through empty air. The monster had already back flipped away. She grumbled angrily to herself at letting him get away, but decided to remain with the family anyways. "Stay behind me," she commanded the father and the woman – a girl about Cloud's age with brown-black hair that trailed below her waist.

She didn't get a response, but she supposed that was as good as an affirmative reply, so she launched an aero blast at the Wrath, magical wind spinning dangerously towards the Heartless. The attack worked as intended, sending the creature flying away as it grew to half its full size. It spun like a cannonball towards a gaggle of Heartless attacking another trio of people, and it knocked the monsters down like bowling pins.

Jaune was currently dealing with a pair of Angel Star Heartless, caught between them as they launched their spells at his back just as he turned to deal with the attack that had come at him from the other side. He turned and blocked the beam of Light energy that one fluttering Angel Star launched his way, a serious look on his usually goofy face. His blue eyes were burning purple with two fires, the first reflected off of the town around him and the second with anger at the Heartless that would attack these people. He was a Huntsman and a Keyblade Wielder, so it was his job to save them. No matter the cost.

He turned around and palled. Rushing at him was a trio of magical tornadoes the other Heartless fired at him, the wind grabbing flames that they passed through and creating deadly, burning twisters that spread destructive heat wherever they went. He groaned and tried to run around them, only for the flames to turn to intercept him.

Jaune grimaced and tried to come up with a plan, but was distracted by the loud noise of an energy ball flying through the air. He turned towards the first Angel Star and raised his Keyblade as quickly as he could, the blade and ball crashing into one another. Jaune was forced backwards a few feet, but the energy ball flew upward and exploded a dozen feet above. Jaune tried to turn back to catch sight of the... _burnicanes?_ He wondered to himself. Unfortunately, he had little time to ponder the naming conventions for tornadoes crossed with fire; all three were already on top of him. Jaune shouted out in pain when all three crashed into him at full speed, their flames enveloping him and searing his aura.

He came out fine, if a little worse for wear. Oh, and much angrier. He dashed forward when he heard the telltale sign of an energy attack soaring towards him from behind. The ball shrieked and turned after him, homed in on the Keyblade-worthy Heart that rested within him. He gritted his teeth and ignored the attack for the time being as he couldn't deal with it without getting destroyed by the Angel Star he was currently rushing. At least the one who had fired the energy blast at him couldn't send anything his way that wouldn't intersect and alter the course of its own attack. He raised his Keyblade and slashed once, twice, three times across his body with the magical weapon when the Heartless in front of him surged with Thunder magic and cast a trio of electrical spheres towards him. The attacks flew off, two soaring past the Heartless and the other dissipating uselessly against the monster's body. He jumped after that final projectile, Keyblade raised above him for a powerful two handed blow that would have destroyed the Heartless had its crystalline wings slammed shut. Instead, the Kingdom Key slammed into the shield-like wings and rebounded, sending the Keyblade wielder soaring backwards completely off balance.

"Crap crap crap!" he hissed, trying to spin around and guard against the attack he knew was going to come his way from behind. But as soon as his back was turned, another trio of thunder balls came from the Angel Star that had used its wings as a shield. He shouted out in pain as the electricity ran through him and paralyzed him momentarily, just long enough for the ball of energy that had been homed in on him all this time to slam into his chest and send him flying over the top of the Angel Star behind him. He landed in a crumpled heap on the ground, still stunned by the thunder balls that had hit him. Slowly but surely, though, he forced himself to stand up. He, enraged, narrowed his eyes at the monsters and threw the Keyblade out to his side, hoping what he meant to happen would happen. He was pleasantly surprised when green energy exploded into being around him. He was slightly worried when he felt an exhausted pit in his core erupt into being as his magical reserves were drained, but he was more relieved that he could feel his Aura shoot back up to nearly full. He raised his weapon beside his head. "Come on!"

The Heartless exploded when a yellow blur slammed into them, the fire trailing behind it making it seem like a yellow comet roaring through the town. The comet hit the ground in front of Jaune. Dust exploded out around the point of impact, and Jaune let his weapon fall to his side in annoyance. "What, now you don't trust me to keep myself safe?" he growled at the figure who had begun to appear.

Yang stood up straight and glared at him. "I'm supposed to watch your back, Jaune. Calm down!" she hissed before turning to look for the two people she'd been protecting earlier. They'd managed to run off a short distance, but Heartless were already starting to congeal from the shadows around them. She turned to Jaune and pointed at him. "Dammit, we'll talk about this later."

Jaune narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to respond, but Yang was already gone. He growled and kicked the dirt before looking around for more Heartless to fight.

Yang slammed her right fist into the face of a Ronin that had been sneaking up on the girl. "Not. Today!" Yang said with a smirk, steadying herself and preparing to defend the duo again. She glanced back at them and gave them her cockiest grin. "You guys okay?" They stared at her blankly, terrified of what was happening in front of them.

Yang shrugged then jumped back into battle, her right fist raised above her head and her left hand out straight in front of her as she charged an Angel Star that was rushing towards her. Her body twisted and her fist rocketed forward to crack the glass-like body of the Heartless before shattering it completely . The force of the blow exploded within the Heartless' chest cavity and it died from within, disappearing into a cluster of Darkness. Yang was already moving onto another Heartless, flattening it with a single blow. She shouted out in pain when a Ronin's blade slashed across her back, at which point she turned and punched its head off of its body. Another tiny blade slammed into her side. She hissed in pain and leaned over, a sidekick caving in the Ronin's chest.

She jumped back when a large Wrath's claw rushed through the air towards her. She threw her hands up in front of her, crossed in a block, when she saw that the impact had created a gust of wind that sent her hair swirling and nearly knocked her off balance. Nearly. She instead landed on her feet and slid backwards until she was next to the man and his daughter again. She growled and launched a fireball at a nearby Heartless, turning the Ronin to ash and igniting the flesh of the large Wrath behind it. The monster shrieked, its maw glowing an evil yellow, and stomped towards Yang. Unfortunately, a dozen more Heartless were doing the same.

Yang looked around. This was starting to get... bad, and she knew it. She was cocky, not crazy after all. Still, she had to help these people and she wasn't going to let something as small as an overwhelming number of Heartless stop her from doing that. She pulled in closer to the man and his daughter. She'd figure something out... right?

The brawler didn't have to, though. A bright, horizontal line of Light appeared across the monster's chest. The creature exploded a moment later and a blonde man streaked through where it had been. He twirled midair and landed facing the same direction as Yang. "See, you can trust me to cover my back _and_ yours."

Yang focused on the Heartless instead of Jaune. She clasped her hands together above her head and cloaked them in a Thunder spell before she brought them down on the head of a nearby Wrath. The electricity channeled through its body even as it was forced to the ground and began to grow. Yang turned and performed a back kick on its head, sending it sliding back and hoping that would give her some breathing room. Unfortunately, the swarm of Heartless had turned its full attention on the two blondes and those they were protecting – both Keyblade Wielder and Brawler hoped that was because everyone had escaped rather than the other possibility. The swarm closed in tighter.

Jaune slashed at the incoming wave of Darkness, cutting through a trio of Ronin advancing on him. The only benefit of so many Heartless closing in was that they couldn't avoid his attacks. The bad news was that each one killed was replaced by three. Still, that didn't stop Jaune or Yang. The both of them attacked the wave of Heartless full force, slashing and bashing the creatures into oblivion as they came in. The monsters got a few hits in at the same time, a sword strike here, a Thunder ball there, or blades of Dark Fira flying from the claws of a Wrath. The two fought through the pain, destroying Heartless after Heartless until they could no longer hold out. A Wrath slammed its claws down on top of Yang and the Brawler was barely able to bring her arms up over her to take the attack. The ground beneath her feet cracked and she felt herself slowly begin to sink into the dirt. Jaune was swarmed by Ronin after getting struck by Thunder balls and Tornadoes from a pair of Angel Stars. They tackled him, forcing him to wildly swing his blade to get them off of him. "Jaune!" Yang shouted, glancing over her shoulder for a fraction of a moment before the weight on her arms began to increase and she was forced to focus on the monster attacking her. "Dammit..."

Jaune growled and struggled against the Heartless piling up on top of him. He had to get out of this, he had to show Yang he could –

"DADDY!"

Jaune froze. He could no longer feel the monsters writhing about above him or perceive the Darkness that hid behind their masks and within their eyes. He turned his head and stared between the Heartless. He caught a glimpse of the source of the scream. The young woman, running towards her father. Her father who had the fiery blade of a Ronin run straight through his chest. His body was already disappearing, turning into glowing specks of Light and a floating, crystalline Heart. The Heart was swallowed up by Darkness even as the woman got close and uselessly punched and kicked at the Heartless.

Yang roared in rage and pushed against the Wrath as hard as she could, her own experiences driving her rage. Jaune felt cold terror wash over him instead. Like ice had filled his veins and flash frozen his blood. "DADDY, NO!" Then it all melted under the fire of a burning rage.

With a roar, Jaune launched himself upward, a blade of Light burning on his Keyblade's edge. The Heartless that had been holding him down were gone, replaced by shards of inky black that turned to ash under the fire of the Light. He charged the Heartless approaching the woman, who was now sobbing into her hands with her knees on the ground. The man gritted his teeth and swiped at a Ronin jumping towards him from behind, then cut down an Angel Star nearby. At the same time, Yang shoved upward with all of her might, sending the Wrath's claws up and the monster itself wheeling back on its heels. She snarled and jumped towards the monster with her hands raised above her, the resulting blow containing the force of the attack it had leveled against her. The blow caused the creature's chest to cave in and an explosive wind to fly out of the monster. Angel Stars, Ronin, and Wraths were thrown away, clearing a path through the monsters towards the edge of the town – and two figures waving their arms to get Yang's attention. One had a sword the size of a person. Yang landed beside the girl and grabbed her wrist. "Tuck, roll, and run," she shouted. The girl continued crying. "Hey! Get out of here and stay alive. Take it from someone who's lost her mom, it's what he'd want!" The sobbing slowed and the brunette stared up at Yang. The blonde inwardly shrugged. _Good enough_. Then she spun as quickly as she could and threw the girl through the pathway.

"You sure that's going to work?" Jaune asked as he blocked a Ronin's blade and countered.

"If Zack's half as good as he says he is, she'll survive," Yang muttered with a grimace while staring at the woman soaring through the air.

And Zack was at least half as good as he said he was. The warrior leaped into the young woman's path and caught her with an almost effortless grace, then landed softly on his feet a moment later. "Get her away from here. I'll help Jaune and Yang," Zack commanded Cloud. The man in the helmet saluted, at which point Zack gingerly placed the young woman on the ground and sprinted into the horde of Heartless with Jaune and Yang. He jumped and spun, Buster Sword slicing through the air and carving through a pair of Angel Stars. He landed heavy beside Jaune and Yang. "You guys seen Sephiroth anywhere?"

"He isn't with you?" Yang asked. She turned away from Zack and blocked a heavy blow with her bracers and punched the Ronin in the face.

"He disappeared after we killed that giant monster last night. I haven't seen him since!" The Buster Sword bisected a half-grown Wrath, the blow strong enough to kill it before it could grow to full size. "He left to find you guys. What happened?"

"We found something about him and Cloud," Jaune explained. The blade of Light carved through a Soldier – different Heartless were showing up here, now. Drawn by the massive Darkness flocking to the world. "Yang showed it to him and he left."

The SOLDIER blocked a Soldier's blow. "What was it?" he shouted over the noise of battle.

Jaune and Yang shared a look. Telling Zack would be like telling him about different worlds, maybe even that his world was only a few months old at best. So they decided on a half-truth. "Somebody made him and Cloud as two parts of one person. A Dark-Light, Yin- _Yang_ kind of thing..?" Yang supplied. The battle seemed to freeze as she waited for anyone to laugh at her pun – even the Heartless would have been nice. The battle resumed a few moments later, Yang frowning sadly the entire time. "That one was great..."

Zack was forced back by a Wrath's claw, slamming into Yang and Jaune so they created a triangle of defense. "No, it was worse than this situation!" Zack hissed angrily. " _I_ didn't even laugh!"

"It was great and you both know it!" Yang snapped. She threw her arms up and struggled against a writhing wall of Darkness trying to crush them. She felt the mass push against her, forcing her backward a half step before she shoved back against it and reached a stand still. Though it was one that she knew wouldn't last long. She growled and pushed as hard as she could, though it didn't help.

Gun fire erupted over the eerie silence of the now empty town, followed by a shriek of rage from a Heartless. Jaune turned and caught sight, past an ocean of Heartless, of Cloud and the woman he was protecting. A small group of Heartless had split off from the main force to advance on the two – or Cloud specifically, rather. Jaune's breath caught in his throat as he realized that Cloud... Cloud wasn't going to make it. Jaune tried to run towards the gunman, slashing through a Ronin before his blade slammed into a Wrath's tiny body. The creature shot up into a giant wall of pink and red that blocked his path and obscured his sight of Cloud and the girl. Jaune grimaced and tried to run around the large Heartless, but tripped over his feet and the Shadows that popped into existence beneath his feet. He fell face first into the waiting grasp of the red Heartless. The Wrath picked him up in its claw and grabbed Jaune tight, lifting him above its head. Jaune shouted out in pain as the grip on him doubled and his ribs began to creak. He opened his eyes when the pressure slacked and saw the Heartless were nearly on top of Cloud, despite the young man's best efforts. Jaune gurgled and struggled against the monster holding on to him, suddenly hoping Yang wouldn't trust him with this fight like she hadn't earlier! He needed some help.

"Jaune!" Yang shouted. Her eyes locked on the blonde being swung around like a toy in the hands of a toddler. She struggled to escape the reverse tug of war she was having with the Heartless. It didn't work. She was stuck, watching her friend die and waiting for herself to die. Ugh, she missed punching Grimm in the face. Those she could take out by the hundred. Heartless that kept popping in from other worlds were another matter entirely. The Heartless she struggled against shoved again and she flew backwards. She slammed into Zack, putting him off balance and leaving the both of them open for a massive blow from a Wrath. Yang was soon buried under the Darkness, drowning under the ocean of Heartless. She lashed out, destroying a Heartless, but it was replaced almost immediately by another claw grasping for her Heart.

Then, there was a pulse of energy that ran over the town. The noise of battle and destruction was quickly cut off by a single noise, the pealing ring that was born when a very thin, very sharp sword being drawn menacingly from its sheath. Then the noise came again, followed by the pulse of energy each time it was launched across the field of battle. The weight atop Yang Xiao-Long disappeared and the Darkness and glowing yellow eyes that had filled her vision were replaced by a sky of stars and the embers of flames smothered into mere embers. The Heartless gripping tight around Jaune's body was suddenly missing an arm when a streak of white slammed into it, followed quickly by its head. Jaune hit the ground with an 'Oof!' The Heartless that covered the battlefield disappeared when blades of black energy washed over them, and suddenly Cloud was safe. _Well, he would be,_ thought Jaune, _if Sephiroth wasn't standing beside him looking like an obvious bad guy_.

"Seph!" Zack rushed past Jaune, who was beginning to push himself up to his feet. The blonde's eyes never left those of Sephiroth, which now seemed dull despite the otherworldly glow that both SOLDIER's eyes carried. Zack slid to a stop and hugged his friend. "We were so worried about you, man!"

Sephiroth nodded, then backed out of Zack's gasp and turned to look at Cloud. He gave the younger man a once over before turning to the woman cowering beside him. "Leave." He turned back to Cloud.

"H-he means you should get out of here," Cloud cut in, though he had made his voice much deeper and gruffer than it would normally come out. "It's safer while we... look for more monsters, Ti – Miss." He coughed and looked away from the woman. She didn't seem to notice his slip up, however, and nodded.

"You two are SOLDIERs, right?" the young woman asked. She waited until Zack nodded. She smiled sadly. "I'm Tifa. If you know another one of you guys named Cloud, tell him what happened and... tell him to come find me." Then she turned and ran off into the night, leaving Zack, Sephiroth, Yang, Jaune, and Cloud himself behind.

"You really did tell everyone you were already first class, didn't you?" Zack asked when young woman was out of earshot. Cloud's only response was deepening red on his cheeks, something no one could see in the pitch of night.

"I've found the source," Sephiroth cut in. He turned and began to walk towards the old manor. "Follow me."

Zack raised an eyebrow and bounded after his partner. "Hey, Seph, you okay?"

"Trust him now? He saved our lives," Yang pointed out while she walked past Jaune. Jaune stayed behind for a moment. He still didn't trust Sephiroth, and the weird way Sephiroth was acting made Jaune sure of that. Instead, he stood beside the quiet Cloud.

"You're probably wondering why I lied to my friend, huh?" Cloud asked when he noticed Jaune was standing beside him.

The blonde laughed nervously. "Uh, well, not really," he admitted. Jaune scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "After all, I, uh, kinda did the same thing?"

Cloud straightened up and took off his helmet. Jaune took a surprised step back upon seeing the young man, who looked a few years younger than him. More surprising was the blonde hair that looked spiky enough to be used as a stabbing weapon. Seriously, it put Sora's blades of hair to shame. And of course, as Jaune had suspected, Cloud's features were eerily similar to those of Sephiroth. The androgynous softness of youth and safety from pain that would be hardened by age and loss. "Huh?" Jaune asked when he realized that Cloud had asked him something.

"I was wondering what you meant by 'you kinda did the same thing?'" Cloud asked.

Jaune glanced around and saw that the two of them were falling far behind. He motioned for Cloud to follow and began to walk after the others. "I lied to get into a school for Huntsmen. Where we're from, they're a lot like you SOLDIERS. They protect people and fight monsters."

"Is that where you and Yang met?" Cloud asked.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah. She and her sister were two of the best fighters in the entire school. They'd been training to fight their entire lives," the Keyblade wielder explained. His grip on the magical weapon in his fist tightened. "Me? I'd never held a sword before, much less fought anyone. But I wanted to be a hero, so I lied."

"And now you are!"

Jaune stopped moving and looked over at Cloud, who was smiling at him. Was he a hero? "I'm trying to be. I don't think it's really a goal you achieve. Being a hero is about always trying to be one, always getting better." Jaune shook his head. "I made mistakes, and I know what it's like to be the weakest person around a bunch of heroes." He smiled, resolution returning. "But I'm going to make up for those and be a hero for everyone that believes in me and everyone I've lost."

Cloud grinned sadly and looked around his hometown, tears welling up in his eyes as he realized that he had just lost people too. "I... get it," he said. He raised one arm and wiped his eyes, sniffling, before revealing them with a grim face of bravery. "Thanks, Jaune."

Jaune nodded, then looked back at Zack, Sephiroth, and Yang ahead. "Anytime..." Then he began to follow once more, with their group eventually entering the dilapidated mansion once again, though the Darkness and shadows within seemed to press much more than

Sephiroth led them through the mansion, moving wordlessly and ignoring any attempts by the others to initiate conversation. After about the fifteenth attempt by Zack to ask what was going on, where they were going, and what this mansion was, Sephiroth finally relented by saying two words: "You'll see."

Jaune did not like where this was going, and sidled up beside his partner. "Yang," he whispered, trying to make sure only she could hear him. " _Yang!_ "

The woman's lilac eye flicked towards him.

"Yang, I have a really bad feeling about this," he muttered.

The lilac eye rolled.

"Yang I –" He shook his head and drifted away from her. Fine, then. It was up to him to keep an eye out for whatever was coming, for whatever trap Sephiroth had planted for them. He _knew_ the man couldn't be trusted, he had a gut feeling. Which was ironic, given that's how Yang said she felt she couldn't trust OJ, but he knew that was just because OJ was a him that she couldn't babysit for Sora and Ruby and – Jaune shook his head. No, he was sure Sora and Ruby and the others trusted him. Right?

"Here we are." Jaune was brought out of his thoughts by Sephiroth's statement, and he looked around, studying his surroundings and looking for a trap.

It was a laboratory, large and with a sparse floor save for the pair of tubes about as tall and wide as a human being, a visualization strengthened by the presence of what looked like a pad at the back of the tube. More, smaller tubes ran along the walls of the room and into the large ones at the back of the room. A single screen with a menu, the top selection of which was 'Journal.' That selection was far less dusty than the rest of the screen. Sephiroth walked up to the large tubes and placed his left hand against them. Zack frowned and took a step forward. He reached out as he moved to grab hold of his friend's shoulder. "Seph, what's going on?"

"Shut up." Zack froze in place, hand still outstretched. Sephiroth slowly turned around and glared at the group, his eyes wild. He continued speaking, "Just be quiet. A man should not address a god."

Zack shook his head and laughed dryly. "Real funny, Seph." He stopped grinning. "But what's going on?"

Sephiroth's cold gaze just stayed locked on Zack. "Seph?" the black haired SOLDIER asked. He took another step forward, but froze again when Sephiroth's massive katana was suddenly unsheathed, tip pointed at his partner's throat.

"Cloud," Sephiroth said without turning from Zack. The blonde gunman stared, terrified, up at his hero. "Have you wondered why the Heartless seek us out more than these... insects?"

Cloud glanced at Jaune, who was sliding into a battle stance. The very least Cloud could do was distract the swordsman. "Y-yes?" Cloud muttered quietly.

"Because we are gods," the white haired warrior reiterated. A terrifying smile began to spread across his face. "We were born before this world. It was created to fit our memories and dreams because we are gods. We are real." His smile disappeared. "Unlike anyone else, we are real."

"Seph, you're acting crazy." Zack's hand drifted up to the handle of the Buster Sword and he gripped it tight. He slid his feet apart slightly and then raised his other arm slightly in front of him so he stood in a ready stance. Zack narrowed his eyes and said, "Seph, we still need to find the source of these Heartless."

"You don't understand, you worthless insect!" Sephiroth snapped. His blade fell to his side and he advanced on the dark haired warrior a step before regaining his composure. "Cloud, the Heartless are here for us, to follow us. They and the Darkness, the Darkness like this -" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a solid sphere of pitch black, about the size of a baseball. " – the Black Materia are our servants. We are gods, and this world has become too small for us! I – we will find an ancient world, the world we belong, the two halves of a single Heart! We will destroy this world and reclaim who we truly are from this prison!" Cloud stared at the other man in horror, not knowing whether to believe the warrior's insane words or not.

Yang spoke up before anyone else. "Sephiroth, think about this. Wherever you're from, whatever happened to you before this... you're you now. You can't kill someone – especially not everyone – to bring back someone you aren't anymore. That you might have never been!" she shouted, begging him to snap out of what was happening to him. "Think this through, you have friends here and now. You need to move forward, not focus on the past!"

Jaune glared at her, a look that she caught. "What?"

"Yang, you aren't the best person to tell him this," Jaune muttered. He glared at Sephiroth. "Not that he'd listen anyways. It's just like I've been saying – he was always evil."

"A mere insect like you could never understand me," Sephiroth retorted. He swept his free hand across his chest and laughed at Jaune. "Why a weapon like the Keyblade would choose one so weak, stupid, and insignificant as yourself... it must be a test for me to claim it!" Jaune winced. That actually hurt his pride a little bit.

"And what do you mean," Yang hissed at her partner and causing his hurt pride to be replaced with annoyed, indignant anger, "that I'm not the right person to tell him this?" She jabbed her finger at herself. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Jaune's eyes snapped over to her for a brief moment, a moment that Sephiroth the Great and Powerful did not feel the need to capitalize on. "Yeah, you are. But you're also willing to murder Morrigan to bring your mom back to life, Yang! Sora's said Nobodies can get Hearts over time, and she's been around for almost a year! What if she's a person now and killing her to bring your mom back is just _killing her!?"_ Jaune snapped. His eyes returned to Sephiroth and looked for any sign of movement. There wasn't any. "He's not going to take advice from a hypocrite who tells everyone around her – OJ and Sephiroth included – to ignore their problems and a way out of it – insane as Sephiroth's way may be – when she's going to go murder a Nobody to save the Mom who left her when she was four!"

"I – " Yang shut her mouth and turned to Sephiroth. They'd wasted enough concentration on this argument, and right now wasn't the time for this. She'd let out the anger at being betrayed and then at Jaune's words by punching Sephiroth in the face. Hard. A lot. Then she'd be as levelheaded as a Xiao-Long could manage when she had to talk about this with Jaune.

Jaune sighed as he realized what he'd said. The Keyblade drifted down and he turned his shoulders to Yang, visibly contrite. "Yang, I'm -"

"We'll talk about this later. We've got bigger crazies to beat up," Yang said with a hollow voice. She glared over at Sephiroth and raised her fists. "Put the Dark Materia and your sword down, Sephiroth. Now."

The white haired swordsman blinked. "No." He placed the Then he vanished, replaced by thin black lines.

"Watch your backs!" Zack shouted, already turning and drawing his Buster Sword. The large blade swung around and saved the swordsman's life. Sephiroth's blade and the man himself had appeared behind him, blade swinging around to decapitate Zack, though the blade was stopped by the Buster Sword's massive flat. Dark electricity channeled down the length of the blade and into Zack's weapon, causing every muscle in his body to tense up before Sephiroth pushed again. Zack was thrown across the room and into the wall, denting a pipe before falling to his knees. Sephiroth turned away from Zack instead of finishing him and looked towards Yang and Jaune instead.

"Yang, Flamethrower!" Jaune charged towards his partner, who nodded solemnly in understanding.

Her hair turned aflame and her eyes a bloody red as she let her anger surge through her. Jaune dashed towards her, letting his Keyblade streak straight out and into Yang's hand. She spun around with the momentum his blow carried. Both of them summoned flames to the tips of their weapons, Jaune's Fire and her Firaga fusing together on the top of the Keyblade before Yang let go and Jaune flew at Sephiroth fast enough that even he couldn't move out of the way. Jaune lanced his Keyblade out in front of him, the fused Fire spells glowing white hot over the teeth of the weapon, and collided with Sephiroth's blade, moved into a defense position. The attack exploded against the katana's flat, sending flames outward in a radius that consumed both of the warriors involved in the clash.

Jaune flew backwards out of the smoke that remained from the ball of flames a half second later, tumbling across the ground and rolling to a stop at Yang's feet. "You don't understand, do you?" Sephiroth stepped out of the smoke, no worse for wear from the assault. He lowered his blade back into its sheathe and glared at Yang. "Only a god could hope to kill a god." He vanished again, and Yang turned around. She expected he would attack from behind, just as he had with Zack moments earlier.

Instead, he attacked from the same direction he had been earlier. His blade slammed into Yang's side just as she turned and she was sent flying, only for him to reappear in her path once more. He had a wild grin and his eyes were glowing a dim yellow before his weapon crashed into her again. He left behind an after image an a cloud of black feathers before appearing in her path once more and slashing up, then again from above with a blow that sent her careening towards a wall. A final blow sent her right onto Jaune, shattering the stone beneath them and leaving the Auras of both trained Huntsmen low enough that another of his blows would drain it completely, if not outright kill them.

Sephiroth landed silently beside them, almost as if he had glided to the ground rather than fallen. He turned as he landed and was immediately in a blade lock with his former SOLDIER partner. "Watch, Cloud. They struggle uselessly against our Darkness." He shoved against Zack and took a step, causing the black haired warrior to slide backwards.

"Cloud, run! I'll hold him off, just run!" Zack shouted. He tried to take a step forward and force Sephiroth to a standstill, but it was a wasted effort. He continued to slide backwards and the handle in his hands began to dig against his palms. He spared a glance towards Cloud, who was staring, completely stunned, at the two tubes at the back of the room. "Cloud! Snap out of it!"

"Do not talk to him!" Sephiroth demanded, eyes flaring yellow again. He flicked his wrists and the Buster Sword flew from its wielder's hands, soaring across the room and becoming buried in the ground a foot and a half from Cloud. The blonde SOLDIER jumped in surprise and shied away from the weapon, slowly moving towards the door.

"Oh, don't leave now, Cloud. We have so much more to do!" Sephiroth turned around, ignoring the fact that Zack behind him – while unarmed – was completely uninjured as well. Cloud froze, terror running through his eyes. "If you accept my Darkness – _our_ Darkness!"

"Leave Cloud alone, you nutjob!" Zack shouted. He dove forward and grabbed Sephiroth by the midsection. Sephiroth laughed as Zack's shoulder slammed into the small of his back, doing nothing to harm the white haired swordsman or move him in the slightest. The white haired man turned and grabbed hold of the man struggling to gain leverage. Sephiroth laughed once, then tore Zack off of him and threw him across the room. The SOLDIER hit the wall with a sickening _thud_ and fell, now unconscious, to the ground.

Sephiroth smiled grimly at the noise before he turned to Jaune and Yang, who had just made it up to their feet. The ex-SOLDIER raised his hands at his sides until they were above his shoulders, gesturing around the room. "Now you see the power of a god!" He laughed and advanced on the two a black flame erupted into being along the edge of the blade. Yang tried to take a step forward, then fell to her knees instead with a cry of pain and exhaustion tearing from her throat. Jaune forced himself in front of her and raised the Keyblade defensively in his hands. Sephiroth stopped moving and smiled at Jaune. He studied the Keyblade wielder's face, steely with anger and resolve in the face of imminent death. Jaune tried to attack, but found he wasn't strong enough right now. "Fool. Only a god could kill a god." He raised his katana and aimed its flaming tip at Jaune's throat.

The Keyblade wielder stood still, knowing nothing more or less than a lot of pain was coming his way. The flaming blade arced around, moving slowly as if the white haired man was toying with him. Jaune grimaced as the blow sent his Keyblade wide and Sephiroth didn't take advantage of this obvious opening. Jaune lowered the Keyblade again, and then there was a lightning fast blow that forced the Keyblade down, resulting in a resounding peal of noise as it crashed into the metal floor. Jaune panted from exhaustion and tried to bring the Keyblade up again. Sephiroth laughed coldly at the blonde warrior's attempts and raised his left foot. All it took was a single hard kick and Jaune was on his back right next to Yang. The Brawler forced herself to her feet. "Look's like it's... my... turn..." she growled when she shakily stood up. It only lasted a moment before she tumbled forward and landed on top of Jaune, her Aura almost completely exhausted.

"Underwhelming. I had expected more from you somehow," Sephiroth muttered, voice laden with disappointment. Sephiroth lowered his sword to his side and shook his head. "Though, I should have suspected this. After your underwhelming performance against my Heartless, I should have seen this coming. You're _weak_. Just like all the others."

"Your Heartless?" Cloud echoed, an edge coming into his voice as he began to understand everything that was happening to him.

"Of course, Cloud," the swordsman said. He turned back to his counterpart, whose fists were clenched in rage beside him, and shrugged. "The Darkness is ours. If you give in to it, if you use it as I do, as our Heart does, you will see that the people of this place had to die. They were lies made to keep us compliant and weak, surrounded by and reliant on Light instead of our own power. The Heartless were almost eager to help in that regard."

"You killed everyone I've ever known."

"You never actually knew them, Cloud." Sephiroth turned back to Jaune and Yang. "Just as you never actually knew these two." He charged forward, intent on skewering the two warriors helpless on the ground.

At which point the Buster Sword exploded from his chest. The black cloth of his SOLDIER uniform frayed and became slick and dark with blood. Sephiroth's blade fell from his hand and he grabbed hold of the weapon in his chest, someone remaining alive despite the massive piece of metal protruding from his body. He stumbled to the side, revealing Cloud moving backwards and letting go of the sword. "That... was a mistake," Sephiroth growled, the insanity in his eyes magnifying. He coughed and blood flew from his mouth even as he reached into his pocket to pull out the Dark Materia once more. The sphere pulsed with energy and black flames appeared in his hand. His other hand reached up and shoved the Buster Sword from his chest with a disgusting _slurp_ and a spurt of blood. "If you won't accept the Darkness, I will force you to use it!"

Cloud snarled. "You controlled the Heartless! You almost killed my best friend!" He roared before leaping forward to tackle the ex-SOLDIER. Weakened as he was, Sephiroth hit the ground on his back and blood began to pool around him as he struggled against Cloud. "I won't let you do this again!" He brought his fist up and slammed it into Sephiroth's face; a tooth clattered across the floor. The black energy pulsing out of the Dark Materia deepened. "Monster!" White Light glowed all around Cloud, shining from within him as he landed another punch before moving to tear the orb from Sephiroth's grasp.

The moment that his hand met the Materia, the Light and Darkness mixed, swirling around and around faster and faster. Purple and yellow clashed together, white and black mixed to a smokey color filled with flames and destruction. All froze and locked their eyes on the vortex of doom clutched between Cloud and Sephiroth's hands. The vortex slowly grew still and froze. Everyone stared at it... until it exploded.

Jaune had spent the entire fight crawling closer to Yang. He had to help her. She had taken one of Sephiroth's massive sword combos and was now in worse shape than Jaune himself was. The Keyblade wielder shut his eyes and prepared for what he had to do. After all, if he couldn't do this, he would die. Yang would die. Neither of those sounded good. "Reflect!" he shouted desperately at the Keyblade and at the wall of pure, writhing energy that was streaking towards the two of them. He hoped one last time that this would work. Then everything went black.

 _ **S M H S**_

Darkness swirled around Jaune as he laid with his back on the pillar of his Heart. Far away he could see flames of Light and Darkness rushing towards him and, he felt, someone else. He pushed himself up. "What am I supposed to do?" he asked the emptiness. There was no answer. He turned towards the storm on the horizon, the small figure thrashing about angrily atop it. The pillar and storm remained far away, though both were obscured. This time the man wasn't angry. And he wasn't far away. Jaune was staring at himself, though... not. He had yellow eyes where Jaune's were blue and a confident smile where Jaune was afraid.

"Save Yang."

Jaune took a nervous step back, only to jump forward when a blinding golden light erupted from where his foot had hit. He turned around and stared at the ground, the golden outline of long, flowing hair with a single arm flexing beside it, colored similarly. "How do I save her?"

The Dark Jaune shook its head. "We need to save her."

Jaune narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth at the Darkness."You're evil," Jaune snapped, turning on the Darkness. It didn't respond. It just stared. "You only want to help yourself! To get what you want!"

The Darkness narrowed his eyes. He growled out, "And what I want – No, what _we_ want, what _Jaune Arc_ wants... is to save Yang." The Darkness snarled and jabbed a finger towards the blonde man. "So you're going to help me save her. Now."

"I can save her without you," Jaune retorted.

The Darkness laughed. "Then show me."

Jaune turned back to the light above. He tried to come up with an answer and a way to do this without using the Darkness. The fire grew ever closer until even Jaune could feel the heat on his skin and the smell of the burning flesh. Yang... He couldn't let her die. But this Darkness was the Darkness that had convinced him to betray his friends and nearly murder his own father! He couldn't let that in any more than it already was! "If we don't work together, she'll die," the Darkness hissed, his voice full of worry. More worry than Jaune thought anyone's Darkness could muster. "Come on!"

Jaune struggled for a moment then nodded and stepped atop the silhouette of Yang completely. "Fine, but only to help Yang." The Darkness walked up and stood beside Jaune atop Yang's glowing silhouette. "Reflect!"

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune woke up with a start, bright light blinding him and warmth surrounding him. He lashed out, Keyblade appearing in his hand in a bright flash of Light and rushing towards the nearest life. "Hey!" The Keyblade stopped in its tracks and was torn from his hand, even if only momentarily. "Jaune, we're safe. Don't freak out!"Jaune blinked a few times and his eyes slowly adjusted to the light.

Yang was staring down at him, standing in front of the pilot's seat of the Gummi Ship. The weapon in her hand disappeared and reappeared in its owner's hand. Jaune looked around slowly, seeing he was laying on the floor of the ship's cockpit. He frowned, questions running through his mind. "W-what happened?"

Yang sighed and ran one hand through her hair. "Sephiroth attacked us, took us out." She fell into her chair and shook her head. "Cloud stopped him somehow but there was an explosion. When I woke up you were still out cold and injured. I couldn't find Cloud or Zack, and people were coming so I got us out of there." She looked over at Jaune and things became awkwardly quiet.

Jaune grimaced as his own recollection of the day's events returned to him. He remembered what he had said to her. Even if he was right, it hadn't been the time. She had trusted Sephiroth, she had given him his past. And because of that, Sephiroth had killed an entire town. "Yang, are you okay?" Jaune asked. She looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "... I'm sorry Sephiroth couldn't be trusted."

Yang shook her head. "Don't, Jaune. Just don't." She turned and leaned back in her chair before sighing. Jaune dismissed the Keyblade, then pushed himself up and into his own chair. Yang looked over at him and continued saying, "You were a jerk on Gaia at the end, calling me out like that. In front of someone that wanted to kill us. It was stupid and could have gotten us killed. It should have!" Yang shook her head and covered her eyes with one hand. She let her fingers slide apart to peek at him. She would be the bigger person her. One more time. After this, Jaune could forgive her first because it wasn't fun. "But you were right. About me and about Sephiroth. I should have trusted you more."

Jaune leaned forward and stared down at his hands, clasped in his lap with his thumbs nervously moving over one another until the skin became a dull pink. He remained silent in the face of Yang's withering glare for a while like this, just trying to occupy his body while his mind and Heart struggled for the words he needed. "I get it. Not trusting me, you know." He shut his eyes and brought his hands up to bury his face in them. "I don't even trust me, you know? I betrayed you guys for something I even knew was too good to be true and then I didn't even have the guts to actually try to fix it." He shook his head in his hands. "Instead I got brainwashed and nearly killed you. _You_. One of my only friends in the entire world – in the Universe! There's no way I could trust me after that. And there's no way you can trust me after that, if I don't."

He looked back up when Yang's hand rested on his shoulder. "Jaune, I do trust you. All of us trust you – me, Ruby, Sora, everybody! I've trusted you ever since you fought off Salem just to keep yourself from killing your dad. I trust you... even if you are stupid enough to argue with me in front of the bad guys," she said with a soft smile. She sighed and crossed her arms. "Look, you were right. I was being a hypocrite back there. OJ did helped Aizen, but he did say he'd try to fix it. That means something. And I obviously haven't been the best judge of character recently, have I? But I know I can trust you, and if you trust OJ..." The brawler shrugged. "Well, that's good enough for me."

Jaune smiled up at her before surging to his feet and hugging her tight. "Thanks, Yang," he said.

She sighed and shook her head before patting his back softly. "Okay, Vomit Boy, there you go. Best buddies." She pushed him to arms length and grew serious. "But, Jaune, we can't keep doing this. You getting angry at me, me getting angry at you."

Jaune nodded solemnly. "Yeah, you're right. We are partners after all. Friends..." He smiled and jumped towards her, looping one arm around her shoulders in a side hug, suddenly deciding to humor the brawler beside him. He shouted out, grin ever widening, "I won't be _dragon_ you down here on out!"

Yang looked over at him, eyes widened by surprise. She then shut her eyes tight and laughed boisterously, bringing her own arm up to grab Jaune and hug him tight to her side. He yelped as he the side of his face was suddenly buried in her neck. Ever so slowly, the laughter stopped and she brought her other arm around to hug him for real, this time much softer but still the firm, thankful hug of a friend. "That was a pretty good one, Jaune." She turned away from him ad let him move towards his seat. "You didn't have to do that, you know."

"No, it's fine. Now I get why you make them all the time. Kinda," he said, tenderly rubbing the bruise her hug had left on the bones of his arm. He leaned forward and looked out to all of the sparkling worlds that floated within the empty expanse of Darkness, cutting through the black sea. "So, buddy, how about we vacation this time?"

"A vacation? But we have one in... a month," Yang said. She frowned and looked down at her Scroll. "Now... Doctor Polendina said he'd added in something to make the Scrolls tell Gummi time..." She fiddled with the options on her device for a few minutes, then laughed and pressed a button. "There. If the next world's time is really weird we'll know to leave!"

"Great," Jaune said. He raised an eyebrow. "But why do we need to leave again?"

Yang slapped her forehead. "Oh, right! Whoops!" She shook her head and laughed. "I knew I'd forgotten to tell you about that. You were asking when we were flying away, and then I didn't tell you... Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't know."

"Yang..." Jaune muttered, annoyed.

"Right! Right..." Yang chuckled and shrugged. "Okay, so everyone's got a job now. Sora's got that school with Uncle Qrow and Professor Ozpin. Ruby's teaching at Beacon. Everyone else is... somewhere. No one's adventuring together, killing monsters anymore." Yang shrugged, though she looked kind of sad as she did. The look disappeared and was replaced with an excited, bright smile. "So we decided to meet up at this beach in Vacuo for some fun, sun, and guns."

Jaune smiled sadly. "If... if they want to see me," Jaune said hollowly.

Yang rolled her eyes and responded with, "Who do you think broke you out, Vomit Boy?" She looked around. She pointed towards a distant world. "Now, how about we go there?"

"Arendelle? Looks like an icicle." Jaune shook his head. "Too cold."

Yang shrugged. "'Kay... that one?"

"Desert of Arrakis? Yang, it's literally got the word 'desert' in the name!"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Fine. Drama Queen." She shook her head in disappointment. "Then... Okay, this looks pretty good." She zoomed in on one of the worlds.

"... Zootopia?" Jaune read aloud. He studied the world, with one end a massive city separated into many artificial biomes, such as a lush jungle, a dried out desert, and a frozen tundra. The other end was a small town covered in large swaths of gardening fields and dominated by a large carrot. The Keyblade wielder leaned back. "Okay."

Yang smiled. "Hey, forgot to tell you when we were arguing, but congratulations!"

Jaune blinked in confusion. "For what?"

"Not puking last time we were in this ship! I bet I can even have fun flying without you freaking out now!"

Jaune palled. "Y-Yang? No. No! NOOOOOOO!" He screamed as she gunned the engines and began to perform loops and barrel rolls through the Lanes Between leading up to Zootopia. "Yang, I'm gonna hurl!"

She didn't listen.


	10. It's a Zoo Out There

**AN: I'm back! I know it's been a while, but I don't have a lot of free time now. I'm working on this pretty much whenever I have free time, though. Anyways, I haven't seen any of Volume 5 yet, it just came out after all, but I'm excited from that trailer.**

 **Responses:**

 **To gamelover41592: I'm happy that I was able to communicate that both Yang and Jaune had something valid to be angry about when it came to the other. That'll probably be the last time, at least for a while, that they're in such direct confrontation with each other. They're friends, and writing them as angry with each other could only go so far. I hope you enjoy what I do with Zootopia!**

 **To commandosquirrel: Yeah, I'm treating it more like how Sora treated being turned into a lion or a merman. But, yeah, it's furries. Gazelle's tiger dancers? Gazelle? Little odd for a kids' movie, I think.**

 **To ssjzohan: Sorry, but... Well, one of them is a bunny. It's the animals I'd planned from the start, and Jaune's animal will make more story sense at the end of the second go around for Zootopia.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: Why did I choose Zootopia? Well, when I was picking worlds I wanted ones that had some connection – direct or otherwise – to the theme of 'Internal Darkness' and the struggle against it. Zootopia's 'Savage Animals' I thought worked quite well with that idea. And of course they're animals! Sora turned into a lion for Lion King, so it'd be lame if I didn't follow that same logic. Also, I'm almost done with "Fire of the Dragonsouls'" next chapter, so I'll respond to that review in that story.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the chapter! Please, leave a review if you feel like it!**

 _ **Chapter 10: It's a Zoo Out There**_

"Okay, time for us to land," Yang said as the Gummi Ship finally came within range of their next adventure. She eased back on the throttle, then pressed a few buttons to put the Ship on auto-orbit of the world below. After a few moments, she heard an angry groan, prompting her to look over at Jaune. The Keyblade Wielder was glaring at her angrily. "What, you didn't hurl? That's two in a row, Jaune!"

"That would have made anyone sick, Yang. You're a terrifying pilot!" the Keyblade wielder retorted. He gestured at the wheel. "I've got dibs on next trip, got it?"

"You don't know how to fly," Yang retorted dismissively.

Jaune scoffed. "Cause you do?"

Yang considered what he said for a moment before looking down at the wheel and turning it a few times. Finally she shrugged and said, "Hmph. Point."

Then she turned back to him and tossed her hands straight up, fists clenched in excitement. "But enough of that! Are you ready to head down there?"

Jaune looked out the cockpit's window at the world below. "Yeah. Looks normal compared to everywhere else we've been." Yang nodded and turned back to the ship's controls. Jaune shut his eyes as the still unfamiliar feeling of the ship transporting them down to the surface of the world overcame him, surrounding him with the warmth of a bright Light that seeped even through his eyelids and down to his core. There was a weightless feeling in his gut that would have made him sick if it weren't so gentle in moving him.

Then after a short moment, it was gone. The Light was replaced by the shadow of his inner eyelid and the gravity returned to his universe. Instead, two feelings that were significantly more uncomfortable replaced them. His mouth suddenly felt far too big, and the teeth in it felt incredibly uncomfortable against his tongue, which itself felt like it was threatening to spill from his mouth. He opened his jaw and he found he was right – his tongue lolled out of his mouth before he yanked it back in and shut his mouth. The other feeling was heat – he felt like he was trying to stay calm in a jungle.

Jaune next opened his eyes and looked around. "Yep, that's a jungle," he said simply. He placed his hands on his hips and continued looking around, feeling like something was out of place, though he couldn't quite place it. "Yang! Yang!"

"Jaune!?" The Keyblade wielder's gaze shot up and he caught sight of a pair of feet dangling from a tree, though the thick foliage obscured the rest of Yang's body. Jaune frowned. Those feet were small – a lot smaller than he'd expected. Of course, Yang could have been further up than he thought she looked. _Maybe my depth perception is a little screwed up._ The feet shook for a while, then the person connected to them tumbled out of the green and plummeted towards the ground, landing after only a fraction of a second. _That rules out her being farther than I thought... I wonder what happened._

Jaune ran towards the woman's prone body and slid to a stop with a very confused look on his face. "Uhm... Yang? Is that you?"

The figure groaned and pushed herself up to her knees, shaking her head. "Who else would it be, Vomit Boy?" She turned around and shot Jaune a glare that quickly turned into a look of sheer confusion, then the stifling of hysterical laughter. Unfortunately for her, that same look was mirrored one for one on Jaune's own face. Soon, neither of the warriors could manage to stifle a single laugh, and the jungle began to ring out with the sound of the boisterous peals of good natured, albeit mocking, laughter.

After a short while, the laughter died down. "W-wait, why are _you_ laughing?" Yang asked Jaune. She pushed herself up to her feet and stared straight up at him. "And... how the Dust did you get so tall?"

"Well of course I'm laughing and taller than you, Yang! Look at you, you're a bunny!" Jaune shouted. He shut his eyes and bent over, laughing again.

" _What!?_ " Yang screamed.

"Come on, with ears like those I know you heard me," He said before breaking out in laughter again. He shook his head and looked at her through his laughs again. "Oh, Yang, I'm almost jealous – you look like Pumpkin Pete!"

"Laugh it up, Dog Breath," Yang muttered. The tiny rabbit crossed her arms and glared up at him.

Jaune opened his eyes and studied her, analyzing how the once tall warrior looked. The brawler was a soft golden color, and one hundred percent a bunny rabbit. Her nose had turned tiny and pink above a snarling growl that showed off her large bunny teeth. Her feet had become far longer proportionally and much more slender in general, and her boots had turned into tight, brown socks that only covered up to the middle portion of her feet. Other than that, her clothes remained mostly the same. Jaune laughed at the tiny white cotton ball that divided the two sides of her skirt in the back. The woman's hands had become three-fingered crosses between paws and human hands, pink pads like those of a real rabbit at their center. Her robotic hand was less obvious here, the color nearly blending into that of her fur. The main part of her face was the deeper of the two golds, though beneath her nose it turned into more of a golden cream. Yang, once all of nearly six feet tall, had shrunk down to maybe half of that height – if you didn't include the two golden ears that sprouted up a foot from the bright yellow hair that remained much the same, though it looked almost as long as her in this form, leading partway down her legs instead of to the middle of her back. The hair glowing like fire and her now blood red eyes made her look more tall and intimidating, now.

"Bad dog. Look at your own tail," Yang growled, a self satisfied and cruel smirk appearing on her face. She pulled out her scroll and lifted it, snapping a picture of the now incredibly confused Jaune. Then she turned it around and smirked. The horror on Jaune's face caused her red eyes to return to lilac and her hair to fall, the ears subconsciously moving to lay flat against it and blend in with it.

Jaune leaned in to get a good look at the picture. "No..." he mumbled.

Dog was right. Jaune had turned into a golden retriever. He had a long, bright gold snout that extended from his face and ended with a dark black, wet and incredibly sensitive nose. He groaned; now that he knew about it he found he couldn't ignore it in his own field of vision. He _really_ wasn't happy about this. The jowls that curled out on the side of his face weren't helping him feel better. Droopy ears dangled off the top of his head and, now that they went limp from his confusion, flopped in front of his eyes. He huffed, the noise coming out like the whine of an annoyed dog, and pushed his ears out of his face. He caught sight of his own paw that way, the pad at the center covered by his glove, though those of the fingers were clearly visible, a light brown. His pink tongue rolled out and he began to pant – right, a shaggy dog in the jungle. Not the best. He looked down at his feet and shook his head – his jeans were rolled up to the middle of his... calf? Worse still, his shoes had completely disappeared. He was walking around barefoot.

"Yeah, you're barefoot," Yang said as she saw his jowls droop. "Like an _animal_."

Jaune whimpered and felt something hit the ground. Behind him. He shut his eyes and grimaced over his extended tongue, then turned his head around to look at his drooping tail. He shook his head, then looked up and said, his tongue still drooping from his mouth and causing a lisp, "I wewwy, wewwy hade yoo." He rolled the tongue back into his mouth and tried to get used to it. "I mean, _really_."

"You'd really rather be the bunny?" Yang asked.

Jaune's teeth bared and he growled, the noise annoyingly like the animal he'd become. Yang had seen Beowolves growl though, so – even as a bunny rabbit – she wasn't impressed. "Yes! I love Pumpkin Pete!"

"Who doesn't? But you have teeth and claws! I have..." Her hand came up and lifted one of her droopy ears. She sighed and let the ear drop. "Well, at least we're both Dust-Damned adorable..."

Jaune glared at his partner dryly for a while. "Did you just call me adorable?" he asked, hoping he could catch her off balance for once.

"Oh, just look at yourself!" Yang showed him the picture again. "Hey, give me puppy dog eyes! It might _paw_ -sibly be the cutest thing I've ever seen!"

Jaune's retort was interrupted by a pair of black shapes rushing over them with an audible _whoosh_ , ruffling the foliage of the trees and sending leaves floating slowly down to the ground. Jaune bared his teeth and the hair of his hackles shot straight up when the wave of pure, evil Darkness slammed into him. He traded a look with Yang and saw her ears had shot up, studying the path of the Heartless and listening for any noise. He blinked and leaned towards her. "Are you okay?"

She jolted and turned to Jaune. "Yah!" She coughed into her hand and slowly raised it to the top of her head to smooth her ears back down into her hair. "Er... Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm totally fine!" She looked in the direction that the Hearltess had bolted and her ears rose slightly. "That was just so loud! These things are like speakers wired to my brain! Ugh... I hate being a bunny..." She shook her head and threw her arms down, causing her bracers to extend until they were ready for use. Steel returned to her eyes and face and the fight replaced the flight.

"Well, hop to it then," Jaune said, then took off, leaving a stunned Yang behind.

Yang was too stunned to laugh. "Did you just –? Jaune, answer me!" she shouted before sprinting after him, easily catching up with her bounding bunny steps. "Jaune, why can you do the jokes but I can't!?"

"I'm funny," came his simple response.

"Funny looking," Yang retorted.

"Ha ha," he muttered. He tightened his fist and the familiar weight of the Keyblade exploded into being in his right hand. His feet padded quietly down the wooden walkway, dog nails clicking against the ground and dragging against foliage that sprouted from below. Yang was completely silent, her smaller size causing her to land without any noise and her smaller nails barely dragging against the wood when her foot flew into the next step. She became impossible for even Jaune's overly sensitive dog ears when rain started to fall from above. Jaune glanced up in surprise. Rain? "Sprinklers!?"

Yang sniffed the air and looked over at Jaune with a jokingly disdainful glare. "And I thought you smelled bad before you were a wet dog," Yang muttered mockingly as they ran.

"Dogs eat rabbits," Jaune pointed out dryly. He bared his teeth. "Maybe I'll eat you if you aren't quiet."

Yang laughed at what he said. She grinned, then said, "That's not nearly as bad as you think it sounds, Jauney."

The Keyblade wielder felt like, if he were human still, he'd have blushed at the fact he'd missed that particular double entendre in his words. "You knew what I meant!" he snapped.

"This way is more fun," Yang mocked again.

"Of course you'd -" He shut up and slid to a stop when he saw that the Heartless had stopped moving, the group of four monsters now stationary as they surrounded their prey in this jungle.

One of the Heartless turned towards them, revealing its full appearance to the two. It was a large, purple creature resembling a tiger that prowled about on all fours. Black lines crisscrossed along the back of its body, leading down to a menacing tail that flicked back and force, causing the serrated spikes along its length to slice through the air. Its mouth glowed yellow from within, matching its eyes, and what looked like poison magic dripped from its fangs. The monster's legs were long, lithe, and all purple, with poison tipped black claws poking out of its paws. The Heartless turned more to look at them and both Jaune and Yang had a single name run through their minds – _Predators._

The first of the Predators leaped towards them, landing on top of Jaune before he could do anything but bring his weapon up defensively. Jaune was on his back, now, strugglinga gainst the Heartless's strength to keep from dying. The Keyblade was locked into the Heartless's jaw and was thus the only thing that kept its poison fangs from digging in to Jaune's throat. The rain of the sprinklers continued to pour out and wash away the poison magic that pooled on the ground.

Yang rushed past Jaune, trusting that he could handle himself, and towards the three other Predators and the people that they were hunting. She jumped into the air and was immediately thrown far higher into the air than she'd thought she would go. "I hate this!" she screamed as she soared over the Predators and the prey, the Heartless and people both staring at her with confused looks – or whatever it is Heartless could muster in place of bemusement. The people – or animals, Yang supposed – were oddly like she and Jaune themselves. The first was a tiny gray bunny, her ears pointing straight up as her steely eyes fixed on the soaring, screaming Yang. She was dressed in a uniform of a blue shirt and pants, a black vest with a police shield on the chest over it. Her feet had the same odd, sock-shoes that Yang had. The other was a fox, who looked far more disappointed at his 'savior' than his partner despite his surprise. He wore a green button up with a loose, purple striped tie handing from the collar, and then a pair of khaki pants and no shoes. His bushy, rust colored tail extended from his back. The fox grunted dryly and said, "Dumb bunny."

Yang's gut slammed into a tree branch and her arms flew forward. "Ow..." she groaned before sliding backwards and landing on the ground with a heavy, painful thud between the predators and the two animals. Yang groaned, sitting up, and rubbed her back where it had slammed into the wood. "Yang strength plus bunny legs is a bad idea..." She glanced up at the animals and grinned nervously before surging to her feet and raising her fists at the tigers. She moved closer to the animals and tightened her fists in front of her when the memories of Gaia came back to her. She wasn't going to let that happen again.

Jaune was still struggling against the Heartless, angling the Keyblade and swinging it to his left. The Heartless' head was shoved along with the weapon to the side and it hit the walkway, rolling away from Jaune and giving him enough time to push himself up to his feet. The rain of the sprinklers stopped falling. Jaune ran at the Predator as it got its feet beneath it and readied to pounce at him again, shadowy sinews tensing. Jaune raised the Kingdom Key like a bat over his shoulders when the Heartless finally let all that tension go at once and it shot towards him. He swung the attack and the Keyblade collided with the Heartless' face. Green bile flew all through the air and landed around Jaune even while the Heartless itself was thrown off course and crashed into the ground.

Jaune howled out and covered his nose with his sleeve before stumbling back. "Ugh... what's that smell!?" he shouted out before his eyes locked onto the glowing green puddles of death. He grit his teeth behind his sleeve and glared at the Heartless, on its feet again. "I hate being a dog." He clashed with the Heartless when it jumped at him again. He swung his Keyblade to the side and caught the Heartless' poison claws before they could dig into him. The Darkness of the Heartless' claws sparked against the physical Light before Jaune spun out of the way. He yelped – the noise coming out like a dog's bark of surprise and pain – and began to fall toward his back when his paw found a puddle of Poison. He threw out the Keyblade and used it to keep himself up so he could move away from the puddle. The Heartless slashed at him with its poison claws again and Jaune stumbled backwards, ignoring the throbbing pain that was running from his foot and all through his body. He raised the Keyblade above his head. "Cure!" Green light surrounded him and the wound on his feet sealed shut, the pain turning to a dull ache, much easier to ignore so the Keyblade Wielder could jump forward, sliding through the space between the leaping Heartless' claws, and bisect it. A crystal heart flowed towards the sky.

Yang, meanwhile, grabbed one of the Predators by the wrists of its front paws and spun, putting extra power behind her throw towards one of its kin. The Predator slammed into the claws of the other's, carving a deep gash in the Heartless' hide. It roared out in pain and swiped blindly with its front paws. One of the attacks managed to catch the monster that had wounded it by the jaw and sent it tumbling away. The third of the Predators tried to catch her from behind, but Yang was quick enough to turn and prepare for its attack. Her fist slammed into its face, fire sparking from her knuckles and hair, the sparks and force causing the monster to explode in a cloud of shadow and fire. "Whoa, whoa! No fire, crazy!" Yang turned towards the scared and disturbed bunny. "Trees plus fire? They may be wet, but then again fire isn't supposed to come out of someone's hair!?"

Yang rolled her eyes but reigned in her excitement at the fight. Still, she couldn't resist saying something. "I thought you were a bunny, not a chicken," she remarked coolly, earning a chuckle from the fox.

"What, Carrots?" the fox asked when the rabbit glared at him.

Yang turned and kicked the injured Predator that came her way, the blow shattering its face and turning it to ash that dispersed around Yang before disappearing into the Darkness once again. She smiled and lowered her leg. "Never mind. Yang strength plus bunny legs is the _best_ idea!" She roared out in excitement and leaped towards the last Heartless, raising her fist in front of her. "HELL YEAH!" Her fist slammed into the monster's face and she shot through it like a bullet, the Heartless dissolving behind her. She landed on her feet with a grin and turned around. "Nice..."

"We did it!" Jaune and Yang shouted, turning to one another. Jaune bent down slightly and held his hand out to give her a high five. Her moods fell, and she whispered under her breath, "Jaune... don't forget I'm usually taller than you..."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. He stood up but kept his hand low. "Don't get angry..."

"I have a short fuse, so that's a tall order," Yang muttered. Jaune just groaned.

"Do you two have a license for those weapons?!"

Jaune and Yang blinked once, still staring at one another, before turning towards the rabbit in the police uniform. The gray bunny's finger was pointed at the two and she was scowling. "What?" Jaune and Yang said simultaneously.

"Carrots..." the fox muttered under his breath. His palms slammed into his face and he shook his head in disappointment.

"Do you two have a license for those weapons?"

"License?" Jaune asked.

"For weapons?" Yang inquired.

The concept to them was completely foreign. Owning a weapon on Remnant was basically a requirement of living. Almost mandated by the Kingdoms if everyone didn't already own some weapon or another. So... the concept confused them. "Why would we need a 'license?'" Jaune asked.

The fox looked up dumbly. "W-what?"

"If you don't have a license for your weapons, I'm going to have to arrest you!" the bunny shouted, voice firm despite the fact she was faced with people who had taken down three monsters that could – each – have torn her and her partner apart.

Jaune laughed and dismissed the Keyblade. "What weapon?"

Yang's bracers retracted. "Yeah, I'm confused. What are you talking about?" she asked, voice basically drowning in false innocence.

The two animals yelped in surprise and jumped backwards. "I... uh..." the rabbit began, desperately trying to figure out where the Keyblade had gone and how Ember Celica had become a pair of non-threatening bracelets.

" _What?"_ the fox shouted. He pointed between Yang and Jaune. "... I need to know how you did that. It would be great for some -" he turned and saw the rabbit giving him an angry glare. "- some, uh... respectable business opportunities."

"Sure," the gray rabbit muttered dryly. She returned her glare to Yang and Jaune. "You can't just have weapons without a license."

"Maybe if you had one they'd take you more seriously," the fox pointed out, stuffing his hands in his pockets and grinning slyly at the other animal.

"A cop that doesn't have a gun?" Yang asked in surprise.

"Oh, tell him about how you tried to police Polar Bears! I bet a weapon would've been nice there!" the fox mocked.

"Nick!" the bunny snapped. She sighed at the fox's unrepentant grin before she turned towards the two who had saved them. "Fine, since it's obvious I can't take them from you – or in some cases, where they are – I guess I'll let it slide for now." She glanced between Yang and Jaune before extending her hand towards Yang. "Officer Judy Hopps, the officer that is searching for the missing mammals throughout the city."

"And I, as Carrots forgot to mention, am her smarter, taller, better looking accomplice. Nick Wilde, entrepreneur, at your service," the fox interjected, holding out his hand towards Jaune.

Jaune and Yang glanced at one another for a moment, then took the hands extended towards them. "I'm Yang Xiao-Long, beauty, brawler, and badass," Yang said as she shook Judy's hand. She let go and gestured at Jaune. "And the shag carpeting is Jaune Arc. Clumsy, but adorably so. He's a dog through and through, after all. Oh, and clever. Sometimes."

"I feel like that if this was anyone else it would be vaguely racist..." Jaune muttered under his breath. He shook his head and grinned. "She forgot to mention how humble she was, but otherwise pretty much right."

"Ha!" Nick shouted dryly. He jabbed his thumb at Judy beside him. "Don't worry, bunnies have a tendency of rushing through things."

Jaune raised an eyebrow and glanced between them. "So... what was this about missing mammals?" he asked. Missing anything almost always meant that the Heartless were involved, and Heartless weren't likely to surrender to a police officer's authority.

Judy smiled and scoffed, understanding what Jaune was really asking. "Thank you for offering help. Really. But, look, I can't get civilians invol -"

"Why am I involved then? I'm a civilian, too. Or did you forget, Carrots?" Nick mocked, his voice full of mock surprise and pain from being 'forgotten.'

Judy growled angrily. "I can't get any _more_ civilians involved." She looked away from the fox. "It wouldn't be right to get you involved when you have nothing to do with what's going on."

"You aren't going to get far if those Heartless kill you. You two couldn't do anything to them," Yang pointed out. She crossed her arms. "And we can take them out."

The fox grimaced. "I would prefer to live through this." He shrugged. "But that's just my opinion, Carrots."

"Besides, we're just going to follow you anyways," Jaune stated, simply and honestly.

Judy glanced up at him and her foot began to tap faster and faster against the wooden walkway. Finally: "Urgh, fine." The foot slammed harder than before and she nodded. "You can come with us."

"Great!" Yang shouted, throwing her hands up and stretching up to her tip toes slightly. Her arms fell and she rubbed her chin. "So... uh... what are we doing?"

Judy nodded and slowly began to explain, "There have been a rash of disappearances in Zootopia over the past year. All of the animals that vanished have been predators – a cheetah, a tiger, and most recently an otter. I was only able to start investigating this because... well, the chief doesn't want a tiny defenseless bunny on his force." Yang narrowed her eyes. Tiny? Defenseless? She wanted to give this guy a piece of her bunny mind... "If we don't find a lead on the animals in the next few hours, I'm fired. Nick was my first lead, which is how he got roped into this." Nick saluted lazily. "Somehow he's been good company."

"Aw, Carrots. A compliment for little old me?" he asked. He took on a toothy grin. "You shouldn't have."

Judy ignored him. "There's a jaguar who lives near here that might know something about what's going on. We were heading to his home when those... Heartless animals, you called them?"

Jaune and Yang both nodded. "They aren't animals, though. They're..." Jaune searched for the words that wouldn't sound insane to someone from a world where magic and monsters weren't usually a thing. "... something a lot more dangerous."

"Not animals, hm? Won't try reasoning with them again." The gray rabbit sighed and continued her story, "Well, then those Heartless appeared we were stopped and looking for a way out. You stumbled in and saved us before we could figure our own way out."

"M-hm, Carrots. We would have flown off in a spaceship piloted by a mythical 'human,'" Nick said dryly.

"Ha!" Jaune shouted too forcefully.

Nick raised an eyebrow. "Are you -"

He was cut off by Yang laughing even more forcefully. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Human! Spaceship! HA!"

Nick stared at Yang and Jaune's forced, terrifying smiles for a few moments. Then: "I think they might be crazy. I'm less confident about their help now, Carrots." He took a step away from Jaune and Yang, who both grinned nervously but only succeeded in coming off weirder. "Significantly, actually."

"Well, you were the one who pointed out we'd need humans with spaceships to save us if we meet those Heartless animals again, Nick, so don't complain that I followed your advice for once!" Judy snapped back. She nodded at Jaune and Yang. "Come on, we're not too far. If we hurry, we might be able to save Mr. Otterton _and_ my job."

 _ **S M H S**_

"From what Mr. Big told us, Manchas lives up here. It won't be much longer before we get to his home," Judy explained as they turned a corner onto Tujunga street, another walkway made up of wood rather than a real street.

Jaune and Yang plodded along behind the gray bunny and her fox partner, keeping wary eyes out for Heartless that could attack from anywhere within the shadowy recesses of the rain forest. "Good. The last time I was in a rain forest, my friends got ambushed by criminals, so this is kind of unsettling," Jaune explained before his eyes darted from one side of the walkway to the other.

"Wait, what?" Yang asked. She looked down. "But the last time you – Ruby was ambushed by criminals?"

"They were after you," Jaune said without thinking.

"They were – Junior..." Yang growled. She shook her head. "Who goes after someone's sister for revenge?"

Nick looked over his shoulder. "I think you just defined mobsters, Tiny."

Jaune snickered. "Tiny..."

"Shut it, Pupper..." Yang growled threateningly.

"You two are weird, and we've been to a Naturalist's Club," Nick said, turning away and shaking his head.

"Ugh, why'd you have to bring that up?" Judy groaned angrily. She slammed her fist into the fox's arm, but he just laughed it off. "Why didn't it hurt you as much as it hurt me?"

"Oh, it did. I just got a lot out of watching your pain, Carrots."

"I do not understand Zootopia," Jaune said under his breath.

Yang laughed and nodded. "Weird place with weird people." She looked up at him. "I think we could have a lot of fun here, Eats-his-own-Vomit Boy."

"Oh, cause I'm a dog. Hilarious," Jaune muttered. He shook his head. To Judy and Nick: "Are we there yet?"

"Yes! We are!" Judy shouted. She bounced in place, rising to a height slightly higher than Jaune and the similarly sized Nick, before landing quietly. Jaune and Yang studied the building, a small one or two room apartment that looked like it was built into the surrounding trees with leaves crisscrossing over the roof. "Let's get to Manchas and save those animals!"

Jaune, Yang, and Nick followed Judy at a walk, arriving at the front door a few seconds after her. She was already knocking on the door with the impatience of a rabbit having a bunch of carrots dangled in front of its face. "Mister Manchas? Mister Manchas! ZPD, can you open up please?"

"Go away!" came the reply from within.

Judy frowned and shook her head before knocking again and faster. "Mister Manchas, I'm investigating the disappearances of the predators in Zootopia. You were the last one to see Mister Otterton before he disappeared; we need your help to find out what happened!"

There was only silence from within the the building. "Mister Manchas?" Judy asked. "Mister Manchas, please open the door!"

"Uh, let me try something," Jaune said, pushing past her and summoning the Keyblade back to his hand.

"What!? You can't destroy his home and kidnap him, I won't let you!"

"Not the plan. The Key shape isn't for show, Judy," Jaune explained. He tapped the end of the magical weapon against the door in front of him and there was a dull flash. The Keyblade vanished and Jaune reached out to push the door open with one finger. "See, it's unlocked!"

Nick gaped at what had just happened. "... How?"

"Uh-uh, Nick. If it doesn't make any sense and we don't know how, we can say the door was unlocked. Not nearly as illegal to enter the house now."

The fox blinked. "Judy, I... I don't think that's how it works..."

"Really?" She stepped behind Nick and shoved him as hard as she could. He stumbled forward, eventually passing through the open doorway and forcing himself to a stop in front of a terrified panther. "But now there's a no good lowlife breaking in! I have to go into the house."

Judy walked through and stood beside Nick before nodding at Manchas. "Hello Mister Manchas. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

The panther was not in great shape, a long jagged line running over one of his eyes, which was milky and damaged from whatever created the scar. His other was filled with terror as it darted around the room. His clothes were in shambles, with the wifebeater he was wearing ragged and stained by sweat. His sweatpants were loose and covered in thin tears. He finally answered a moment later and the fear from his eyes was evident in his voice, "Yes. I do mind."

"Let me rephrase!" Judy said. She pulled out a carrot shaped pen – Nick winced when he saw it – and a small paper notebook. "What happened to Mister Otterton?"

"I... don't... have anything to say..." The jaguar was growing more nervous by the second.

Judy moved forward to say something else, but Jaune cut in. "Please. Animals are getting hurt, and no one can find out why. We need to know what happened so we can keep it from happening again." He gestured to himself, then the fox, then the jaguar all in turn. "To me, to Nick... to you or the people any of us care about."

"Look, I'm not going to lie and say if you help everything's going to be Kumbaya and happy, but at least it won't be worse. Manchas, saving Zootopia at least _starts_ right here, with you..." Nick added simply, hands in his pockets. Judy gave him an intrigued glance for a moment.

The jaguar considered Jaune and Nick for a few moments, one good eye looking between the two for a while. Finally: "I picked Otterton up at the Naturalist club yesterday, and he was acting insane. Shouting about monsters and mind control. He wanted me to take him to you – to police. For help, for protection, I'm not sure which. But he said something about the disappearances. And as soon as he told me, he went insane. Something... evil took him over. He jumped through to the front of the limo and he just... like a wild animal, savage and... Dark."

Jaune frowned at how expected that was. The Heartless must have been the cause of this – or else some person or group was in charge of the Heartless in Zootopia. Either way, it sounded like Darkness was forcibly being awoken in the Hearts of the animals in Zootopia. "He just lost control?"

"His claws were like fire," Manchas said, gesturing at his scarred eye. "And he moved faster than I thought anyone could. He cut me and almost flew out of the windshield. I thought I was going to die. The last thing he said – the Night Howlers..." Manchas' voice became ice.

"Do you know what happened to him after that?" Judy inquired after jotting down the information Manchas had just given.

"You... believe me?" Manchas asked, voice growing slightly more steady.

Nick laughed dryly. "We just saw panther monsters made of darkness that spat acid. I don't think this is too crazy."

Manchas sighed in relief. "I th-thought I was going crazy, I – " His eyes widened suddenly and Jaune _felt_ a wave of Dark energy pulse off of his shoulders.

"CRAP!" Jaune shouted. He summoned the Keyblade up to his hand before shoving Judy out of the way and bringing it up in front of him. Manchas' claws crashed into the Keyblade, accompanied by an explosion of black flamed, and Jaune was pushed backwards. The jaguar's eyes had become slits of gold and black, the black flames now rising from his shoulders clear in those eyes as well. Jaune grunted against the jaguar's sudden, savage strength and tried to keep himself from getting pushed backwards. He glanced over his shoulder at Judy and Nick's terrified faces. "We need to run!"

"Run?" Yang asked, a grin spreading across her fae. "But this looks like a real fight!"

Jaune shoved as hard as he could and the jaguar was thrown backwards, colliding with the wall on the opposite side of the house. "Yang, we can't hurt an innocent, you know that!" He bolted from the building, grabbing Nick's arm and Judy's and dragging them out of the house.

"Aw... you're no fun..." Yang muttered sadly before jumping out of the house, too, and slamming the door shut behind her. She brought a Fire to her hand and aimed it at the metal lock of the doorway. The heat fused the metal and locked the door. Yang flinched backwards when Manchas' body slammed into the door, shaking it violently. "Er... yeah, let's go!" She bolted down the wooden walkway, easily catching up to the fox, dog, and bunny that were running away together.

"What just happened?" Nick asked angrily as he got onto his own feet and began to run without being dragged by Jaune.

"Talk later!" Jaune and Yang snapped.

It was at this time that Manchas finally broke through his door. Jaune yelped as shards of wood covered in black flames shot all the way towards them, singing his golden fur slightly. From behind came a primal, rage filled roar of a predator about to hunt down helpless prey. Jaune cast a scared glance over his shoulder. "AH!" Jaune jumped to the side and narrowly avoided the thin blade of Darkness that had come from the jaguar's claws. The blade crashed into a tree and left a large, deep gash in its trunk that burned a purple-black for a few moments after collision.

"Where are we going to go?" Jaune asked, regaining his footing and continuing to run.

"Uh... The gondola! Right, then a block or two!" Nick shouted. He motioned with his hand. "We might be able to trap him there... somehow? Or get trapped."

"ZPD, this is Officer Judy Hopps! Send any available units to the gondola near Tajunga!"

"It's pronounced _Ta-hunga!_ " Nick shouted while he glanced over his shoulder. Manchas, running on all fours and the now ragged sweatpants the only thing covering him. "WE ARE GOING TO DIE!"

"We'll meet you there. Draw his attention. If you need to set anything up, we'll try to give you time," Yang commanded, sliding to a stop and quickly turning to run back at the jaguar.

"We can't hurt him!" Judy shouted.

"We won't," Jaune stated. He nodded them forward, silently demanding the others listen to Yang before he too turned back to help Yang keep the jaguar at bay. He jumped over the golden rabbit, Keyblade raised above his head. Yang dashed forward, sliding to her back and placing her feet under Manchas' chin before he could bury his claws or teeth in her body and tear her to shreds. Then she lashed out as hard as she could and the jaguar was sent flying into the air, where the Keyblade slammed him right back down. Yang prepared another kick, but the feral jaguar seemed to sense it was coming and the black aura around his body seemed to swivel and push him out of the attacks' path. Yang kept going with the momentum of her attack, however, easily sliding past Manchas' claws before they could carve her to bits.

Jaune caught her hand as she passed him, jamming the Keyblade into the trunk of a tree as he passed it to stop himself from moving too far. He twisted around the weapon, over it, and then back down to throw Yang at the jaguar. Water began to fall from the sprinklers once more and Jaune's grip on his weapon began to slip before he tightened it and the Keyblade responded to his heart's call, the grip on the handle becoming rougher and less liable to slip.

Manchas growled and leaped up at Yang, the Dark aura around his body flaring violently and stretching out in front of him in the shape of massive claws. Yang slammed her fist into the one that was closest, fire exploding from the point of contact. The resulting Light caused the solid shadow to recoil in pain, but the other claw was able to lash out and slam Yang to the side. Her path took a right angle and she slammed into a tree on the side of the walkway.

"Yang!" Jaune shouted. He turned his attention back to the jaguar and growled threateningly, the noise coming out much scarier than usual due to his canine nature. He let go of the Keyblade and began to fall towards Manchas, twisting until his open palm was aimed straight down, his body trailing in a straight line behind it. The Keyblade appearing in his hand and he twisted until the tip was pointed at the still rising jaguar. Keyblade and shadow clashed, summoning up energy of Light and Darkness that burned and crackled as they mixed. His weapon tore through the dark aura, but the collision sent them both tumbling away and back to the ground. Jaune landed heavy, but remained on his feet, while the jaguar was scrabbling back to a quadrupedal position.

Yang leaped out of the foliage a moment later, hair soaked through by the sprinkler rain that quickly turned to steam when her hair lit up in a bright yellow. Jaune noticed, for the first time, that in this form her _entire body_ glowed that flaming yellow when she was angry. "Yang, we can't hurt him!" Jaune shouted when he forced himself from his stupor.

"I don't think that's actually an issue!" Yang snapped, though the glow disappeared. Her hair and fur were dry now, though they quickly became soaked through again after a few seconds. She slammed an uncharged fist into the claw that swiped at her and then looped her fingers around it, instinctively charging her fingers with her own interior Light so that the energy didn't become formless in her grasp. Manchas roared in confusion when he was torn from the ground suddenly, spinning away from the ground before being tossed away. He swiveled midair and was already on his way back by the time Yang began to fall.

"Do you think that we got Nick and Judy enough time?" Yang asked when she landed softly on the ground beside Jaune.

"Let's hope so," he replied, turning and sprinting down the road towards the gondola that Nick had indicated. Manchas took a moment to roar a challenge to the retreating warriors and Jaune could hear the jaguar gaining on them.

Yang grunted angrily. "You know, if you'd let me hurt him this would be over by now..."

"And an innocent guy would be hurt. We need to help him, not turn him into a bloody pulp," Jaune retorted simply. He turned a corner with Yang and found Nick and Judy standing at the edge of a long, cement walkway. "What's wrong?"

"The gondolas aren't coming!"

"So?" Jaune asked Nick while he turned and prepared to cover them again. There wasn't a response. "W-were we planning on catching him in a gondola?!"

"That's a great idea!" Yang shouted.

"NO IT ISN'T!" Jaune snapped. He glared back at the jaguar. "Gondolas wouldn't be able to hold him for more than five seconds!"

"Why are you yelling at us?"

Jaune groaned angrily. "Sorry, I'm just a little concerned with how we're about to die standing next to a bunny cop without a gun and a conman fox."

"Can we actually try now?" Yang asked.

Jaune sighed. "No... But I might have a plan that won't kill him!" He looked around and noticed, suddenly, that the sprinklers had stopped pouring. "Yang, there's a sprinkler up there! Hit it with a Fira."

"Sounds a bit strong, but you're the boss!" she said, hair flaring up in excitement. "I've been burning up for some excitement." She launched the spell upward and grinned, her own joke and the pyromania flaring up in her gut making her excited.

The flames collided with the metal sprinkler and the surrounding leaves, immediately causing the water on the tree to evaporate. The remaining strength of the spell was more than enough for the leaves to spark into true flames around the sensitive water source. It began to rain immediately, water spraying out from every sprinkler and down towards the two. "Yang, cover Nick and Judy!" The blonde nodded and leaped over, fists colliding in front of her as she got close and shot out a reflect spell around them. Before it was complete, Manchas leaped forward and stretched his ethereal claws out to rend Jaune in two. A streak of panic rose in the Keyblade Wielder's gut and a surge of power ran through his body. " _Dark Thunder!_ " Black electricity flowed out of the tip of the Keyblade, and the effect was... let's just say Yang would call it 'Stunning.' The black thunder traveled between the falling droplets of water and channeled out in every direction, even harming the one who had cast it. Jaune roared in pain but pushed through it, refusing to faint and let the spell die before Manchas was knocked unconscious. Speaking of, the jaguar was basically thrown backwards by the sudden magical discharge, and the lightning began to course all over and through his soaking wet fur and clothes, the water amplifying the voltage passing through his body. Judy, Nick, and Yang weren't much better off. The reflect wall had been raised enough to prevent them from dying, taking up a large percentage of the energy that would have fried the fox and gray bunny inside out without the Aura Yang had or the Darkness that was amplifying Manchas' body. They were the first to fall unconscious.

Manchas was dragging himself towards Jaune, shrieking in pain as his aura began to falter and die around him. "NO!" Jaune screamed. The electricity flowing from the Keyblade intensified suddenly, yellow and black sparks flying out of it like a stream of destruction until, finally, the jaguar went down. Jaune dropped the spell and looked over his shoulder. Yang was on one knee. "Oops..." Then, as one, they fell to the ground and let the world turn black around them.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune groaned. "Every. World. This happens on every world," he groaned under his breath before pushing himself to his feet. He was shaky, and the world smelled like burnt fur that stung his overly sensitive nostrils and reminded him – vaguely – of Yang and Ruby's pet dog Zwei. He couldn't entirely remember why, given he'd only ever encountered the animal a few time, but the thought of the small dog's joyful grin wouldn't leave him. Jaune shook his head and looked around. "Y-" he winced when his muscles spasmed, the last reminder of his ill-conceived Thunder. He grimaced – _Dark_ Thunder. He forced the words out. "Yang!" He looked around, vision returning, and froze when he caught sight of the animals surrounding him. An elephant, a water buffalo, a lion, some wolves. All of them were dressed in police uniforms just like the one Judy wore. "Uh... H-hi?"

"He's awake!" one of the cops shouted, and everything went crazy. Guns were pointed at Jaune from every direction and some of the larger animals lumbered threateningly with what looked like cannons held in their hands. Instinctively, and probably to his own detriment, Jaune summoned the Keyblade to his hand and raised it in front of him. "Drop your weapon! Now!"

He fought off the urge to bare his teeth as he considered his options. He could A: Let them shoot him and die. B: Stop them and hurt what looked to be thirty cops. Or C: Do as they said. None of these options sounded particularly good. Getting arrested would mean they would find out he wasn't actually from Zootopia – no records of a Jaune Arc in their computers, after all. Dying, obviously that's bad. And he wasn't the kind of guy to attack cops, after all. Still, why were they aiming their weapons at him? "Stop! I told you, Chief Bogo, he helped us!"

"His little bunny friend broke my nose!" a Water Buffalo snapped in response. Jaune saw he had bandages wrapped around his face, a small patch of red present at the center. He turned to the side and revealed Judy, standing next to Nick and a handcuffed Yang.

The golden rabbit raised her hands – resisting the urge to break the cuffs then and there – and waved at Jaune excitedly. Then she turned back to Chief Bogo. "You surprised me by waking me up. Believe me, when I saw your badge I toned it down _a lot_. It's why you aren't on fire!"

Bogo's response was dry disbelief. "Yang, don't antagonize the chief," Judy commanded. "It isn't fun to watch."

"I don't know. I'm having fun," Nick noted simply. His dry smile refused to disappear when Bogo's scowl turned to him.

Judy turned and hissed out, "Shut up, Nick..."

"Look, Chief, we can't worry about this right now. We need to find Mister Manchas – he went savage, he could be hurting someone in Zootopia as we speak! If we don't find him and stop him, people could die!"

"A savage jaguar, Hopps? There was no jaguar, savage or otherwise, here when we arrived. If there was one, it would've just killed you. Besides, like I said earlier, this isn't the stone age. Animals don't _'go savage._ ' Unless of course every jaguar just looks savage to a little bunny like you."

Nick scoffed. "Hey, _Chief,_ I saw it too." There was a lot more disdain in that word when it was Nick that said it. He pointed his thumb at his own chest. "Judy's doing a lot more for the animals that have disappeared than you have, so don't go around accusing her of things. She's at least brave enough to try something."

Bogo looked like he wanted to strangle Nick to death. Instead he turned towards Judy and decided to take out his frustration on her. "Badge. Now. You failed, so hand it over."

"But –!" Judy began.

She was cut off by Bogo's hoof-hand appearing palm up in front of her face. "Now."

Judy stared, petrified by disbelief and surprise, for a few moments. Jaune glanced between the stunned rabbit and Nick's increasingly rage filled face. Judy slowly reached down to her chest when she realized everyone was staring at her. "O-of course, S -"

"No."

Everyone in the rain forest turned towards Nick, who placed himself in between Judy and Bogo. "Excuse me, _Fox?_ " Bogo spat through his bandages. His hoof-hands clenched into fists at his side.

"I said no. She still has time. Time you gave her. So she hasn't _failed_. She doesn't owe you _anything_ ," the fox snapped, his hand sweeping across his body in a physical denial of what the chief was saying. Judy stared at him in a combination of surprise and gratitude. Jaune smiled and nodded at the display of friendship.

Yang stopped thinking clearly. Her hands flew up above her head and tore the handcuffs around them to pieces. "Yeah!" The gaze of every animal turned from Nick to her. Yang blinked once and let her hands drift together above her, though the grin never disappeared. Her voice took on a falsetto sing song, like a four year old caught in a lie. "I'm still captured..." Jaune couldn't help but snort in laughter at that, which only caused Yang's joyful grin to widen.

Nick cleared his throat. "My point is, she isn't turning anything over. You gave her 48 hours, so she has... Ah! `10 left to find Otterton. And that's exactly what we're going to do. So if you'll excuse us, we have a very big lead to follow and a case to crack," he said simply. He grabbed Judy's wrist and pulled her towards the end of the gondola port, where Jaune could see that someone had restarted the machines that moved them and a red box was incoming. He and Yang edged slowly towards it at first, moving through an ocean of confused and slightly stunned giant animal police officers before making a break and sliding to a stop beside Judy and Nick. The fox gave a lazy, irreverent salute. "Next time we meet, you'll be pinning badges to Judy's uniform, Chief Big-Butt." Then, with barely another glance at the water buffalo now shaking with rage, he walked towards the end of the port and through the open gondola door, grabbing Judy's arm and pulling her in with him. Jaune and Yang followed close behind and watched Bogo's right eye twitch at the door as the gondola was taken away.

The group traveled in silence for some time. Jaune and Yang waited for some direction, since they were meddling in Judy's affairs. Nick was just staring contentedly out over the rainforest, the only visible things in the darkness the trees and occasional light. "Thanks, Nick," Judy said after a few moments, when the Chief and other officers were completely out of sight.

"Never let them see that they get to you," Nick said, shrugging after casting a glance in her direction. He frowned and looked out over the canopy. "If you're a predator... you're nothing more than a savage animal to a lot of people. If you're a bunny, you're just a tiny animal getting in the way. Don't let them see you care about that, and they'll stop bringing it up." His eyes shut tight and Jaune thought he caught sight of flecks of water running through the rust fur. "Usually."

Yang and Jaune both glanced down, remembering Blake's plight. "It can get bad for some p – animals. But you're better than them, and if they underestimate you it's even easier to sneak up and wallop 'em!" Yang shouted. She threw her fist out of the gondola and grinned. "That's what my friend Blake did." She looked over at Jaune. "And Good-Boy over here. No one thought he could do anything, and here he is. Stronger than me, sometimes."

Jaune smiled appreciatively. "Aw, you're being nice. We need a camera to commemorate the moment," he said dryly, trying to fight off his own tears.

"Ha, you too... Cameras!" Nick shouted. He looked down at the early traffic of Zootopia, cars honking and bustling across the roads. "There are traffic cameras all over the canopy, and a road right by the gondola station!"

"So we can see if anyone picked Manchas up and follow them on the traffic cameras!" Judy shouted when she connected the dots that Nick had just finished connecting himself.

"Which means we can find them..." Jaune said before he grimaced. "If... if we can get into the system. Something tells me Chief Bogo isn't going to agree after Nick's... impassioned defense of you."

Judy grimaced. "Urgh... probably not," she agreed, groaning in annoyance. She placed one paw on her chin. "But, now that I think of it, I do know someone who might." She looked in the direction that the gondola was moving and grinned. "And she works at City Hall!"


	11. Angry Furries

**AN: Eyyo! Finally got this chapter done. Sorry it's been so long... So, so much work. It won't get better, but I'm still going as fast as I can. Hopefully I'll get to go faster later.**

 **Anyways, I'm loving Volume 5 so far. Oscar's a pretty cool character, I think, and he'll be even cooler as time goes on. And the Spring Maiden seems like a really cool idea. I can't wait to see how everything with her plays out – like is this just a phase of rebellion or is she unwilling to help people?**

 **To all of us in America, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a nice few days. To everyone not in America... Have a good Thursday.**

 **Well, better respond now:**

 **To gamelover41592: I'm glad it started great! And of course I kept the Night Howlers, they're a big part of the story, even if I'm changing it up a bit.**

 **To LightJakRises: Thanks. I hope this is good, too.**

 **Anyways, have fun with this chapter!**

 _ **Chapter 11: Angry Furries**_

"Nick!" Judy hissed angrily.

"Yang..." Jaune muttered in disappointment.

The fox and golden bunny didn't listen to their partners, instead opting to continue poking and prodding the tiny sphere of fluff that was protruding from the head of Judy's friend. A sheep by the name of Deputy Mayor Bellwether. "So fluffy!" Yang whispered above the deputy mayor's head, grinning and nodding at Nick.

"I know, right! They don't usually let me get this close!" came Nick's reply as he squeezed the fuzzy ball between his index finger and thumb. He let go and flicked it with his middle finger, giggling under his breath as it jiggled.

Judy hissed at her partner in crime, commanding him to stop: "You can't just touch a sheep's wool!"

"It's like cotton candy!" Yang muttered in awe. Jaune slapped his face with his hand and shook his head.

"So, you need footage from last night for the station at Vine and Tujunga?" Bellwether asked. She began to turn, and Nick and Yang jumped back, terrified that she would notice what they'd been doing. It didn't seem that she had, as she just turned to Judy and ignored the two animals nearly slamming into the nearby shelves of documents. "I'm happy to help. Us little guys need to stick together, right?" The sheep laughed and shook her head before returning to the computer in front of her. "Let's see... Let's see... Oh, here we go! Traffic cams for the whole city!" Bellwether began to click through the screens. "Oh, this is so exciting! I – I never get to do _anything_ this important!"

Judy raised a confused eyebrow. "But you're the Assistant Mayor of Zootopia!"

"Shouldn't you be really involved in everything?" Jaune echoed in confusion.

Bellwether laughed at that idea, a noise that sounded good natured despite the bitter edge to it. "Oh, I'm more of a glorified secretary." She waved her hand dismissively and began to twiddle her thumbs. "I think Mayor Lionheart just wanted the sheep vote... Oh, but he did give me this _nice_ mug!" There was that bitter edge again.

Jaune turned to look at where she was gesturing and he grimaced. Bitter was well deserved. It was a mug that read, "World's Greatest Dad!" Though the 'Dad' was scribbled out with red with the words Assistant Mayor hastily scrawled above. Bellwether forced a smile and said, "Feels... good to be appreciated."

"Well, we appreciate everything you're doing," Jaune assured her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a lopsided smile. She smiled appreciatively, though it looked somewhat strained.

She looked ready to respond, but was cut off when a commanding, angry voice came through her phone. "Smellwether!"

Her eyes fell for a half second before she forced her smile back onto her face and nodded at everyone in turn. "Oh, that's just a fun little nickname he has for me... I tried calling him Lion-fart once... did not go over well."

"Smellwether! I don't have all day!"

She sighed and jumped up. "I better go!" she said, still forcing a smile, and turned to run out of the filing cabinet that made up her office. "Let me know what you find!" Then she opened the door and was gone.

"Guy sounds like a jerk," Yang growled at the phone. She crossed her arms and shook her head.

Jaune glared at the phone and nodded, "Yeah, I'm not a fan either."

"True, but we have bigger problems than Woolie's mean boss," Nick said. He motioned for Judy to get in the seat and begin looking through the footage from the Vine and Tujunga trolley station. The rabbit nodded and hopped into the seat to begin the long process of moving backwards until she could find what happened to the panther, Manchas. She frowned and leaned forward towards the screen, studying it intently.

Everyone had been quiet for some time, waiting for Judy to find anything that might help them when Nick decided to finally ask the question. "So, where are you from?" Jaune and Yang flinched and looked at each other nervously. The fox had turned his head slightly from the screen and grinned evilly upon seeing them so uncomfortable. "Oh, so it's a big secret that you obviously aren't from the city? Not this city, at least." He stood up straight and turned around to study the two. "But I can't tell anything other than that, and usually I'm pretty good about it. I had Carrots down in two seconds, but you two..?" He shrugged in defeat.

"You thought I was from Podunk, not Bunny Burrow," Judy pointed out while continuing to look at the computer. "So you were wrong."

"Semantics. They're basically the same," Nick said dismissively. He pointed at Yang and Jaune, ignoring Judy, who had turned away from the screen now and was politely explaining to her partner and their two allies that Podunk and Bunny Burrow were _very_ different. Bunny Burrow grew carrots, while Podunk focused mainly on the harvesting of corn, for one. "So, how about it? Where are you two from?"

Jaune was not exactly the best at lying in a believable manner. His last real attempt at trying to craft a falsehood had resulted in an absolutely unbelievable statement – that he was a highly trained student of a Huntsman Academy worthy of being accepted into Beacon. Of course, it had turned out well enough. Ish. Now he actually was a highly trained warrior worthy of having gone to Beacon! Still, Yang decided, it was probably best _not_ to let him come up with the cover story for where they were actually from. She opened her mouth before Jaune's stammering could turn into an elaborate and insane lie. So, stick with... 'the truth.' "Forest Vale originally. We've been more like vagrants recently, though."

Nick studied her face for a while. "Never been there before," he finally said, unsure if she was telling the truth. "Is it nice?"

Yang, not missing a beat, responded, "I liked it. Lots of trees, a few good nightclubs. There was this bull that made some trouble. My mom and friends took him down."

"Oh, so you know some cops back home?" Judy asked, looking over her shoulder at them.

"Deputies," Yang corrected.

Nick stared at her for a moment more before glancing over at Jaune's nervous face. Yang cut in, "Unfortunately he doesn't like talking about home. This girl he loved... The bull's friend killed her," she cut in, defending her friend.

Nick's eyes widened. "Oh, I, uh -" he stuffed his hands in his pocket and glanced at the floor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to – Never mind." He turned sullenly away.

"He means we're sorry for your loss," Judy noted simply. Jaune nodded solemnly before glancing over at Yang, who smiled softly to comfort him.

He cleared his throat and gestured at the computer. "Uh, is – is that what we're looking for?"

Judy, Nick, and Yang all turned back to the computer, just in time to see wolves moving in reverse – moving Manchas, in a net, away from a van, placing him on the ground, then walking backwards towards the van again and aiming a net gun at the panther. The net flew into the gun and Manchas stood up, at which point the wolves jumped backwards into the van. "It is!" Judy hit play to stop the rewinding.

The wolves jumped out of the van, fluidly raising their net guns towards the Panther as he slowly woke up amidst the still unconscious group of Yang, Jaune, Judy, and Nick. The panther growled and began to lower itself to jump towards the wolves and claw them to death, and leap it did. Only for the net to surround him and send him flying backwards, skidding to a stop just before falling off the ledge of the gondola station. The wolves ran forward and grabbed hold of the net, lugging the panther within – still snarling – to the van and tossing him in. "Ugh, timber wolves. I bet one's going to howl," Nick muttered dryly. He was rewarded when one, and then the other, began to howl at the sky. "See? What'd I tell ya? What is it with wolves and howling?" The howling continued until Yang began to stir in her sleep, at which point they shut up and jumped into the van to drive away.

Judy laughed in triumph. "Howling! Night Howlers! Manchas said something about Night Howlers and here they are!" she said, gesturing at the screen. "Timberwolves!"

The group watched the van drive away and jumped to the next camera in their path. The van drove in and zoomed out to the next, and they jumped to that camera. This went on for a few moments until the van drove into a tunnel and the group jumped to the camera on the other side of the tunnel and waited for the car to come out. They waited almost a minute before Judy's eyes widened. "Th-the van!? It just disappeared!?"

Nick frowned and put a hand on the chin of his snout. "Maybe... Eh, move, Carrots. Come on," he said, edging the chair she was sitting in out of the way. He leaned down and began to cycle backwards. "Now, if I were going to do something illegal that I didn't want anyone to see – which I never have," he said, glancing at Judy when she raised an eyebrow at him. "I'd use this access tunnel and... Ha!" He clicked another button and the van reappeared on a winding road.

Jaune smiled. "Good job, Nick," he said, placing a hand on the fox's shoulder.

Nick grinned. "I don't do anything except good jobs," he said with a shrug.

"Redwood."

Nick looked over at Judy and rolled his eyes. He scoffed, "Will you let that go, I never actually lied."

 _ **S M H S**_

The four warily glared around the corner of the road at the veritable army of incredibly well dressed wolves that patrolled the bridge leading over the swirling ocean and onto the island upon which the asylum loomed into the stormy sky. "Night Howlers..." Judy murmured as quietly as possible.

Jaune frowned. Something about this felt off, like they were missing something really important. He glanced over at Yang and saw that she had a similar concerned frown on her face. "This feels... wrong," he muttered to the blonde brawler.

"You're telling me," she said, surging to full height behind the corner and crossing her arms. It wasn't very tall as she was now, though she somehow remained intimidating and serious despite this with her lilac eyes a cool amethyst right at that moment.

"Do you guys think it's a trap?" Nick asked, his eyes flashing between them and then the asylum. A frown curled onto his face. "But how would they know we were coming?"

"No, it doesn't feel like a trap," Yang explained, shaking her head as she did. She stopped glared at the ground.

"It's just... who's behind these mammals going crazy? And why do it?" Jaune wondered aloud. "If it's to cause havoc, why lock up Manchas? And if they just want to kidnap animals, these predator mammals aren't the ones you'd want to go crazy."

"It could be mob ties," Judy said simply. "Manchas _and_ Otterton both worked for Mr. Big."

"Maybe... but then why do none of the wolves have any weapons? If it was about a mob, they'd be expecting some kind of retaliation, wouldn't they? And where are the Heartless?" Jaune supplied. He glanced at Yang, who shrugged, the back at Nick and Judy. He shrugged as well and continued, "I don't know. It just feels like we're missing something, and that makes me nervous."

"It even makes me worried, and I'm not a nervous puppy like him," Yang explained, jabbing her thumb at her partner.

Jaune just shook his head.

"Doesn't matter," Judy stated. Jaune and Yang turned to her in surprise. "It doesn't matter what's waiting for us."

"We need to head over no matter what," Nick said, agreeing with her unspoken words.

"We know. Just... be careful," Jaune said before summoning the Keyblade to his hand again. He hefted it up onto his shoulder and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Okay, ready when you are."

Yang's gauntlets unfolded along her arms and her red eyes glowed with excitement in the dark of night. "Oh, hell yeah."

"We should probably sneak in, Yang," Judy said, causing the brawler's eyes to turn lilac and annoyed.

"Really? We have to do that?" she asked sadly. She kicked the ground and her gauntlets retracted. "I wanted a fight..."

Jaune raised his paw. Everyone turned slowly towards him and he sighed. "I, uh... I might have a plan."

Five minutes later, the group was standing together just past the corner. None of the timber wolves were looking their way, as of yet, but it was only a matter of time. "I really hope this works," Jaune muttered to himself. He took a deep breath.

"Come on, Jaune, if there's anything you're good at it's coming up with plans," Yang pointed out from right behind him.

He smiled and looked back at her. "Thanks, Yang, that -"

"And if you mess up, I get to punch something!"

Jaune frowned. "Always looking on the bright side," he muttered, annoyed. He shook his head. "Let's go." He charged forward. He had to keep an eye on the timber wolves that were guarding the complex if this plan was going to work, and his timing had to be perfect. He began to move forward, dashing on all fours to increase his speed. The pads on his palms made his steps almost silent. Rain began to fall and the quiet pattering his hands and feet made against the pavement became completely hidden. One of the wolves began to turn towards them.

"Jaune, what are you waiting for?" Yang hissed as quietly as she could. Being Yang... it was a bit louder than she had meant. The wolf began to turn faster.

"Yang..." Jaune hissed under his breath. He threw his head back and slid to a stop. Then he howled and the wolf stopped in his tracks. The timber wolf threw his head back and began to howl as well.

The wolves behind him glanced their way, hands shooting up in confusion before they, too, threw their heads back and howled at the top of their lungs. Yang grinned. "That should do it," she said. She began to walk past Jaune but stopped when she noticed he wasn't done howling. "Uh, Jaune. Jaune!"

He was snapped out of the howl and stumbled, slamming his face into the ground. "Ugh? What?" he wondered as he spat out dirty water from his mouth.

"Dogs," she muttered before helping him to his feet so the four of them could run across the bridge.

"You okay there, Pupper?" Nick asked Jaune as they hit the midway point of the bridge.

 _Another nickname?_ Jaune thought to himself before shaking his head. "I'm fine," he mumbled in annoyance.

"Don't bark at me," Nick joked, smirking.

"Nick. Stop," Judy whispered as she dashed past and around the still howling timber wolves at the front door of the asylum. She pulled the door open and dashed in, quickly followed by Yang. Jaune arrived next and held it open for Nick before he too dashed into the echoing darkness of the building.

The Keyblade appeared in his hand a moment later, casting a dim glow for a few feet that gave the group some idea of where they were going. There was a collective groan as they caught sight of the long hallway in front of them, a dozen doors on both sides, a corner to another hallway halfway down, and an open stairwell at the end. "We're going to have to check all these rooms," Judy whispered, a tinge of horror running through her voice.

Nick grimaced. "And... And every floor."

Yang started to jokingly cry.

"Well, we better get started," Jaune muttered. He gestured at the doors on the right. "Yang and I'll take that side, you guys do the other side and then we'll spread out from there."

"And we're going to go get the other group if we find the missing mammals," Judy insisted. "Right here."

Yang was quick to add, "Or if there's Heartless. You'll need our help."

Nick nodded. "Duh," he agreed with a nod.

Jaune sighed and looked at the first door. "Well, the sooner we start..."

Judy groaned as well. "... The sooner we find the missing mammals."

The four groaned again at the sheer size of the task in front of them, then finally got to work. They pulled open the first doors on either side, revealing...

Empty, dilapidated rooms that hadn't been in use for decades. "We're going to have to check every room..." Nick said, tears in his voice.

"Yup," Yang muttered. "We are." The four moved on silently to the next rooms, knowing it would be a very long night.

 _ **S M H S**_

"The fourth floor?" Judy asked, her voice overwhelmed with exhaustion as she and the others met up at the top of the stairwell leading up to the fifth story. She yawned and rubbed her eyes in pained annoyance. "Did you guys find anything, because Nick and I didn't."

Jaune was dragging Yang, who was acting as melodramatic as ever, with him on one of his shoulders. "I'm dead from boredom!" Yang whimpered. Jaune came to a stop and unceremoniously dropped her. Yang stifled a yelp and fell, her face slamming into the ground.

"No. We didn't find anything," Jaune said while he stretched his shoulder and groaned. "Sorry that we're so late. She made me search the second half of our side by myself."

"Bored..." came Yang's voice, muffled by the ground and her hair.

"Carrots stopped zipping from door to door on that floor too," Nick said, jabbing his thumb towards his rabbit companion, who scowled at him in turn.

"And you stood behind me a few steps and used me as a shield because, 'I'm a cop,'" Judy said. "And that is fair, but don't get on me for acting a little more cautiously, Nick, when I was the first one through every door."

"Eh," Nick shrugged, not feeling guilty in the slightest.

Jaune and Yang stifled laughter at their new friend's nonchalant response. "Thanks, guys," Judy muttered, shaking her head. She turned to the closest door and rubbed her eyes again. "Okay. Let's just check this out." She reached forward and slowly opened the door.

Jaune immediately felt that this was the right room. Darkness began to waft out of the room, a contamination that could only be felt in truth by the Keyblade Wielder as he stood beyond the doorway. He could practically smell it as it crawled towards them. Jaune took a half step back. "What's wrong?" Yang asked, the only one of their group to notice, as Judy and Nick were standing in front of them. She grabbed his wrist to keep his arm from masking his face. "Jaune. What?"

"Yang, that room is all Darkness," Jaune explained, a pained look on his face. "It smells like... like sunlight being smothered."

"Then this is the room," Yang muttered. Jaune nodded, acknowledging that she was right. She threw her hands down forcefully, activating Ember Celica and summoning a dully glowing flame to her palms. Then she raised them to the ready in front of her. "We'll head in first."

Judy and Nick glanced back at her from the half-opened door and saw her flaming fists. "Well, if you insist," Nick said. He grabbed Judy by the arm and pulled her out of the way.

Judy hissed angrily, "Hey!"

"Her fists are on fire!" Nick hissed back, "And Jaune looks like he saw a monster, Carrots."

"This is the room," Jaune explained quietly before walking in with Yang. The Keyblade appeared in his grasp once more and using this, he and Yang illuminated the pitch black of the room they had just entered. The oppressive Darkness was forced back by the Keyblade and the Light of the fire. The Darkness of the room was permeated even further by the sudden appearance of otherworldly, terrifying eyes that floated and glowed in the shadows, ancient hunger filling them. The primal eyes of predators, 30 eyes total, "This is... is definitely the room."

The group approached the nearest set of eyes, the door swinging quietly shut behind them so that the only light was that of the Keyblade and Yang's fire. The eyes moved slowly backwards, deeper into the shadows of the glass walled cage that was holding it back. "Uh, hello –?" Judy began as she walked forward, her phone coming up to record everything going on around them. The entire group yelped in surprise and leaped backwards when the bright orange and black body of a tiger slammed into the glass. They scrabbled backwards even after the tiger bounced off of the barrier and crashed into the ground of its cell. It rolled and scrabbled wildly to its feet before baring its fangs and hissing at the four wide eyed, scared heroes.

Judy jumped to her feet and swirled the camera around to another cell, turning the light on her phone on as she did. Manchas appeared in a cell, prowling up and down the length of the glass walled room, both eyes shining hungrily. She turned to the next, catching sight of a cheetah, then to another and another. "... thirteen, fourteen... Fifteen!" She found a tiny otter and rushed towards it, getting close to the glass and followed close by the others. She leaned in close. "Mister Otterton! Mister Otterton, are you okay?"

The otter cocked its head to the side and chittered. Then hissed and bounded into the shadows of its cell. "This is all of them," Judy said after a moment of silence staring after the otter, curled up in the corner and still hissing at their group. She stared back at him sadly for a moment, then turned to the others. "Okay, we have all the evidence we need. We need to get -"

Yang and Jaune's eyes snapped to the door when the noise of the door opening shot through the room, the two warriors' large ears catching the noise that Judy and Nick, their animal hearing damaged by the noise of city life, couldn't catch. Yang grabbed them by the shoulders and dragged them into the nearest empty cell, Jaune jumping in with them and sliding the door nearly shut behind them. "What was that for?" Nick asked, only for Jaune and Yang to cover his mouth and motion for him to shut up. They pointed at the door, now halfway open, and the fox's jaw clenched. He got the point now. The four got low to the ground peered into the main portion of the room through the glass. Judy raised her phone to record what was about to happen.

"I want answers!" a deep, familiar voice snapped as it barged through the door, bringing light back into the room. The door slammed into the wall fully and stayed open, magnets locking it in place. The giant lion was frustrated, anger clearly showing on his impatient features as he uncrossed his arms and fidgeted with the tie of his well made suit before throwing his hands down.

The figure beside him waddled into the room, a badger maybe a third of his height . "Mayor Lionheart, please," she said begged him to calm down, looking up from her clipboard and placing a pen in the pocket of her labcoat. She stopped when he did, deferential. "We're doing _everything_ we can!"

Lionheart – the mayor, Jaune remembered from their time with the sheep – scoffed. "Really?" He shook his head and gestured at the animals lining the walls, one hand on his hip and the hair of his mane beginning to rise in further agitation. He took a deep breath before he continued to speak and his voice became more even. "Because I got a dozen and a half animals here who have gone off the rails crazy and you can't tell me why." He gestured at the badger and snarled, the agitation drifting back despite his efforts. "Now, I'd call that awfully far from 'doing everything.'"

"Sir..." The badger sighed. She glanced over at the cell containing Manchas, who growled threateningly, then looked back at Mayor Lionheart. "... it may be time to consider their biology."

The Lion's eyes widened and he jabbed a finger in the badger's face. "What!? What do you mean by 'biology!?'"

Just as agitated by what she was suggesting, the badger's voice began to rise. "The only animals going savage are predators!" she exclaimed worriedly. She gestured at the room surrounding them with her clipboard. "We _cannot_ keep it a secret. We _need_ to come forward!"

The lion nodded and gestured at her with his hand. "Huh... Great idea. Tell the public," he began, voice quiet but mocking. He placed a hand on his chin. "Hmm... And how do you think they're going to feel about their mayor..." he gestured at himself and his mane rose to full as adrenaline and anger spiked through his body, then roared out, "... WHO IS A LION!? I'll be ruined!"

The badger, to her credit, didn't cave. "Well, what does Chief Bogo say?" she asked with a sigh.

"Wow, we're lucky they're saying everything you'd need to build a case in one night, huh, Judy?" Yang whispered so only the group could hear what she had said.

"Chief Bogo _doesn't know_ ," the lion said, jabbing his finger into the badger's shoulder. He bared his teeth and continued to speak through them. "And we are going to keep it that way."

It was at that moment that something _incredibly_ unlucky happened. Jaune and Yang really should have expected this to happen now. The entire room went deathly silent as Yang's Scroll in her pocket lit up and began to belt out the lyrics to her favorite song. Yang yelped and violently reached down to her hip to try and pull her Scroll from her pocket, but by then it was far too late. The mayor and his doctor turned towards the cell with wide, horrified eyes as the back of Yang's head slammed into the glass and she slammed her index finger against the screen over and over again in an attempt to silence it. "Shut up shut up shut up!" she was hissing until, finally, her finger touched the large red bar that said 'Dismiss' on the alarm. She sighed in relief. "I got it."

"Who's there!?" the lion snapped, baring his teeth.

"Yep. You kept them from noticing us," Jaune muttered under his breath at the woman. "You got it." Yang just glared back at him.

"I'm going to – Agh!" The mayor fell to his knees, hands slamming into the ground. Jaune felt a shudder run down his spine when the shadows in the room condensed around the lion and black fire began to flow from his mane. Lionheart's eyes became manic and savage. Hungry. Jaune grit his teeth and tore the glass door open, summoning the Keyblade and jumping in front of the badger just as Lionheart turned, toothy jaws wide open and charged with black fire, towards the doctor. Magical metal collided with teeth and the Dark Fire spell exploded against the Keyblade's teeth.

"How did he move that fast?"

Nick glanced at Judy. "Coming from a bunny..."

"You guys get out of here and go get Bogo!" Yang commanded, stuffing the Scroll back in her pocket. She vaulted into the room and summoned a flame spell to the heels of her feet, the flickering energy casting an angry glow throughout the small room. Her feet collided with Lionheart's head and he was thrown off of the Keyblade wielder, slamming into the wall. The animals within shrieked, roared, and hissed at the lion, but it ignored them. Yang flipped midair and landed beside Jaune. She nodded towards the badger behind them. "And get Stripes out of here."

"But you guys -" Judy was cut off when the lion's eyes focused on her and he leaped again. Judy's eyes slammed shut on instinct as she prepared for death. She hit the ground and saw, out of the corner of her eye, that Nick had shoved her out of the way. "NICK!"

"We'll be fine!" Jaune shouted, appearing in front of Nick and taking the blow with the Keyblade again. "Go!"

Judy and Nick didn't have to hear that again. They dashed for the doctor. "What's going on!?" the badger snapped.

"Don't badger us with questions!" Nick snapped, dragging her out of the room.

"Heheheha..."

"Yang! Helping is better than laughing at bad jokes!" Jaune snapped at his partner.

"Ha ha... Cause she's a badger..." Yang muttered to herself. She sighed and shook her head then turned towards the raging lion. "Fine, I'm coming." Flame came back to her fists and she charged forward, delivering a massive blow against the lion's toothy jaw. His head snapped to the side and he swirled with the momentum to glare at the two, looking no worse for the wear. In fact, the flames that Yang had used against him had, instead of hurting him, seemed to have been absorbed into the flaming aura he was exhuding.

"So. _I Burn_?" Jaune asked beside her.

Yang narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"

"Nothing. It just seems a little... on the nose, Hot-head," Jaune mocked, his voice slightly more confident than usual.

"Jaune, Helping is better than laughing at your own bad jokes," Yang growled, summoning flames to her fists again and jumping towards the lion growling at them. The flame covered fist slammed into the front of the tiger's mouth and Yang could hear the satisfying noise of teeth shattering against the metal of her fingers. She grinned and grabbed the lion by his mane before turning away from the door and throwing him towards the windowless wall. She jumped into the air and tossed a few fireballs at him for good measure until she hit the ground next to Jaune. "Oh, look, didn't need any."

"You sure about that?" Jaune asked, motioning with his head at the lion, who stood up without a single injury.

"What the – I shattered his teeth!" Yang shouted.

"Worry later!" Jaune hurriedly shouted, shoving her to the side and diving after her as a ball of black, explosive flames shot from the roaring jaws of the lion. The black energy flew over their heads and crashed into the wall, instantly incinerating an entire section of the wall with the doorway in it. "For now, I think the answer, Yang, is going with less flames."

"But... But... _I Burn_..." she said sadly.

"Just do it!" he shouted as another sphere of black fire began to condense in the lion's maw. "Uh... Uh... Blizzareflect!" He shouted when the flames rocketed towards them. Hexagons of thick ice began to spring into being in front of them, forming a solid wall in front of them that glowed bright with Light energy. The black sphere crashed into the wall and rebounded just as it finished forming. There was a hiss as the heated air of the fire spell was supercooled and a solid chunk of ice flew directly back at the lion. It roared, a massive noise that shook the room and let the monster catch the ice in its jaws, eventually shattering it. The resulting explosion of ice coated the lion in frost and it flinched in pain.

"What was _that_!?" Yang snapped.

"Less talky more fighty?" Jaune suggested just before the wall went down and the now injured – and much angrier – lion leaped physically towards them again. Jaune jumped to the side, letting Yang, grinning at the coming fight, deliver a savage uppercut to the lion. His mane moved wildly as he was thrown upwards and crashed into the ceiling, the paneling caving in and electric sparks flying out from destroyed wiring. Jaune rushed forward and readied his Keyblade at his hip. He jumped up and slashed at Lionheart as he began to fall from the ceiling, but the Darkness surrounding the predator shifted and Jaune was thrown away by the sudden appearance of a purple and black tiger leaping out of the lion's mane. Poison magic dripped from its claws and fangs and Jaune barely had enough time to stop his attack in order to keep himself safe. Still, he was thrown into one of the empty cells, crashing into a bed in a bundle of sheets.

"Jaune!" Yang shouted, but she looked up and raised her bracers to block Lionheart's clws from crashing into her. "You okay?"

"Fine, just – Agh!" Jaune tore out of the sheets, greeted by the yellow eyes and poison claws of the prowling Predator. The Keyblade swiped to the side, barely redirecting the Heartless' claws into the wall, giving Jaune time to roll off the bed and to his feet. The Predator rebounded off the wall, turning the corner and then leaping one more time in an attempt to gut Jaune. He was ready for the fight now, though, and was able to easily move past the attack. The teeth of the Keyblade slammed into the monster's face as he ducked. The creature flinched and soared over him, crashing face first into the side of the cell. A tiger roared in annoyance from the other side. "Sorry neighbor!" Jaune said with a joking smile.

The smile quickly disappeared when a wave of poison magic flew at him. "Great," he muttered. He raised the Keyblade defensively and blocked the attack, though he was still thrown backwards into the other wall, smoking lines of poison at either side.

"Could you be going any slower?" Yang asked, kneeing the lion in the chin. She sidestepped around him and grabbed hold of his midsection so she could suplex the possessed lion, use his body as a base to flip, and then toss the lion into the room. The Predator turned and got a lion to the face, the two landing in a heap in one corner. "Jaune, get out!"

"Right!" he shouted before jumping out. He turned and aimed his Keyblade at the room and summoned up a burst of energy in his haste. Darkness fizzled at the end of the Kingdom Key, mixed with Light, and several crystals of the twin energies flew in. They collided with the Predator, now free of Lionheart and rushing Jaune, and the resulting explosion filled the cell. Jaune hit the ground beside Yang and the brawler raised her fists above them to summon a Reflect wall that took the explosion and left them both completely unscathed. The same couldn't be said for Mayor Lionheart, now unconscious in his cell and heavily injured, as the two found out when they jumped up and peeked into the cell with wary eyes.

The two let go and hit the ground with a heavy thud. "Ugh..." Jaune groaned as he let his head hit the ground and his eyes shut. "So... just what the hell was that alarm about?"

"That?" Yang asked. She took her Scroll out and tossed it to him. It landed on his face.

"Ow!" he snapped. He groaned and lifted the Scroll, rubbing his long nose. "Ugh... What!? Two days until we're needed back home!? We need to get out of here!"

Yang groaned and dragged herself over to lay down and take her Scroll back. "The one day warning alarm hasn't gone off yet. We'll be fine," she groaned into her elbow. "That was harder than it should have been, even with your weird ice wall."

"I'm tired," Jaune agreed, draping one arm over his eyes. "So... so tired."

The two cast a glance at one another. Jaune, despite himself, couldn't help but grin. "This was a lot of fun."

"Right!?" Yang agreed with an excited laugh.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune and Yang stood in the rain outside of the asylum, watching as heavily armored police officers of various very large, very strong animal species used long poles with steel rope collars at the end to forcefully guide the savage mammals towards sixteen paddy wagons that idled on the bridge, ready to drive the animals to the hospital. Jaune frowned and hoped that this world would be able to help them, because he had no idea how this Darkness had taken root in such a powerful way. From what he'd seen with Manchas, it didn't take much for the Darkness to completely overtake the animals. He wondered briefly if Professor Ozpin might be able to help with all of this, then sighed. "You're worried about this world, aren't you?" Yang asked upon hearing the heavy noise. She reached up and patted the dog's back comfortingly. "Yeah, me too. They don't seem like they know how to fight things like this."

"No, and..." Jaune sighed and looked over at her. "We still don't know who was behind this."

"If anyone was," Yang pointed out, eliciting a surprised grunt from her partner. "I mean, I think there's _something_ behind it, but..." The brawler shrugged. "It might just be Heartless being Heartless, Jaune. Sora said something like this happened to that Clayton guy, right?"

"... Yeah..." Jaune sounded unconvinced. Everything seemed too convenient; after all, only the predatory mammals had been targeted. It felt like there were only two options given that fact... and one of them was way worse. He'd rather think someone was behind all this than ever consider that some people were just more likely to be taken by the Darkness, that the predator mammals of Zootopia were _born_ to be taken by it. "... Maybe..."

Yang noticed his unsure frown. "Hey... You excited to tell Sora and everybody about OJ?"

Jaune felt a small smile grace his features. A problem they could actually do something about. "Yeah. I am. It'll be nice to help him out." His smile widened. "I'm glad you changed your mind about him."

Yang nodded and turned her attention back to the cops moving the savage animals. They were dragging a roaring, rampaging Lionheart down the road now. She still wasn't sure about OJ. She doubted she would be until they got him what he needed and he never came back. But she trusted Jaune and said she'd try to trust OJ. "We can probably talk to Professor Ozpin about a good way to help them. Maybe there's a Keyblade Wielder here that we haven't seen yet."

Jaune laughed. "When did you get so logical? I thought I was the plan guy and you were the punchy girl?" he pointed out.

"I can do both," Yang snapped, placing her fists on her hip and tapping her foot anxiously. She glanced down at it and the foot stopped moving. "Uh... sorry about that."

"Aw, all bunnies are dumb," Nick said, walking up with a, well, fox-like grin on his face. He nodded his head to the annoyed Judy standing next to him. "At least, if these two are a good example."

"Hardy har," Judy said with a glare at her partner. "And if I am a good example, foxes must be really dumb given how many times I've outsmarted you."

"Hey..." Nick said, glaring at her angrily before letting a smile come to his face. "Clever bunny."

"Dumb fox," Judy noted with a shrug.

Judy turned her attention back to Jaune and Yang. "So... are you guys going to come back to the station with us? I'm sure that Deputy Mayor Bellwether would love to thank you for helping rescue these animals."

"Still can't believe her boss kidnapped all these animals," Nick said, shaking his head and putting his hands in his pockets.

"Really?" Jaune inquired.

"Pfft... No. It sounds about right," Nick pointed out. "Especially the whole 'my image' thing he had going on."

"Yeah, we know of a couple people like that," Yang said, thinking of when Qrow told her about when he'd had to talk with all the Councils following Sora's defeat of the giant serpent at Haven Academy. "Doesn't mean he can't be helped or is a bad leader. They just need help." The lion roared and thrashed against the animals moving him. "A lot, in his case."

Jaune watched the lion go sadly. "I hope he gets it."

"We all do," Judy said, then she pointed at the two. "But you never answered my question! Are you two going to come back with us?"

Jaune and Yang glanced at one another. "I mean, we don't have a reason not -" Yang was cut off by the same guitar riff that had gotten them noticed by Mayor Lionheart just a few hours ago. Her eyes widened with excitement and she reached over to Jaune. "But we can't, we have to go!"

Jaune nodded and grinned. "Oh, yeah we do!" he shouted. He turned with Yang.

"W-where are you going? I – Hey! I was just trying to be nice! We still need your statements!" Judy shouted after the two warriors sprinting away. "What the – you're running towards a cliff and the ocean!" She took off after them.

"Carrots! Wait up!" Nick took off after her.

"Home, here we come!" Yang shouted, hand gripping Jaune's wrist tight. He let himself chase after her, an excited grin on his face. Until Yang jumped off of the cliff.

"Y-Yang? Yang!? YANG!" Jaune shouted in surprise as his feet came off the cliff. His instinct of terror stopped when he landed, hard, in the Gummi Ship's cockpit, sprawled out on the ground while Yang herself landed on her feet. The cockpit slammed shut above them and the ship turned on its side so they could look over at the bunny and fox that were staring up at them with dumbfounded, almost terrified looks plastered to their faces.

"Uh... Don't tell anyone about this!" He shouted, hoping they would be able to hear.

They nodded, still slack jawed, so they must have gotten the message.

"Bye guys! See ya soon!" Yang shouted, waving before grabbing onto the crontrols and sending the Gummi ship rocketing away.

"Carrots... What just happened?"

"I'm not going to even try understanding, Nick."

The fox laughed and shook his head. "Yeah... Yeah, I think that might be a good idea. Smart bunny."

Far above, the Gummi Ship flew so far away it could no longer be seen, leaving only a bright light shrinking down to create a momentary star that shined even through the clouds that hid the sky. Three pairs of eyes watched the ship go. Two pairs were those of the fox and rabbit that had just watched their new friends jump in a spaceship and fly off into the great unknown.

One pair was a gleaming, evil yellow filled with hunger older than the world that held it. Blue petals caught the rain and were covered in thin traces of water that led down to the tips of the petals and dripped off. It was a small creature, all things considered. Almost adorable, if it weren't so unnerving and evil. A blob of black at the center of a flower, yellow eyes at the center. It floated, looking like a bell and made a quiet howling noise as it moved. The creature moved in a circle, yellow pollen falling off of its body and landing softly on the building. Then, after another moment, the creature turned and flew away from the building as fast as it could, its travel disguised as howling of the windy storm. It left behind nothing but a small, blue flower growing from the roof of the asylum where no plant should be able to grow.

 _ **S M H S**_

Sora was laying back on the sand of the beach, just enjoying his time and the sun that beat down on him. It was calming, dozing off on the beach; it reminded him of growing up on Destiny Island, snoozing away as often as he could. The hot sand, the smell of salty sea air, and the breeze. Oh, this was the life. He stretched out as far as he could and took a deep breath.

Just as he readied to let it out, he was surprise attacked by someone landing directly on his chest screaming "WHEEE!" He yelped and felt all the air rush out of his lungs from the surprise attack, arms and head jerking up. His eyes flew open and he smiled, even while he groaned and lowered his head to the sand. The weight on top of him rolled off and laid next to him, placing both hands behind her head. "What were you doing, Space Hobo?"

"Apparently getting attacked," Sora said as he rubbed his chest. He couldn't help but smile "Ow, Ruby."

"Pfft. You're fine," she said dismissively.

Sora grinned wider at her and responded, "Sure, physically. But emotionally?" His grin widened. "Ow."

Ruby looked over at him with the same pure smile she always had. "I'm not sorry."

"Monster," he said simply. His hand found hers and they smiled at each other, getting closer.

"Oh, no you don't." Their hands flew apart and Sora rolled away from Ruby as quickly as possible, mouthing 'Sorry' as he went. He got to his feet after a short distance and began to sprint away, only for a strong grip to grab onto his hood and lift him into the air. His legs swung wildly and uselessly just shy of the sandy ground for a while until he realized it was futile and he let his feet stop moving.

Sora turned and grinned sheepishly at the figure holding him, and nearly froze when he saw the fiery red eyes and angry scowl locked on to his face. A scruffy, short beard covered his chin and well styled, if slightly messy, black hair with gray at the temples covered his head. The man was dressed in a suit-like outfit with a tattered, red cape hanging from his shoulders and had a massive sword held in his left hand while Sora dangled from his right. "Um... H-hey, Qrow. What's up?"

Qrow narrowed his eyes. "You're gone for five months with my niece– without even _asking_ me if it was okay for you to be around her for that long. Alone especially. You know I trust you, Keyboy. But I don't trust you with this... Remember all my threats? I'm thinking about following through..."

Sora's mouth dried up. "Um... Please, um... Please don't kill me?" Sora suggested as he continued to shrink under the old Hunstman's glare. "... Please?"

"I'm going to kill you." Qrow sighed and raised the sword threateningly. "I'll make it quick. Because I like you, even if you were alone with Ruby. For five months." Qrow was silent for a few seconds. "Never mind. I'm going slow."

"I-I-It was only a few weeks to us!" Sora shouted, desperate to save himself.

"... Still too long."

"Uncle Qrow!"

The sword disappeared and was sheathed on Qrow's back immediately as he turned to the source of the voice with a grin on his face. He didn't drop Sora, of course. If anything, his grip on the Keyblade Wielder's hood tightened. "Ruby! It's so good to see you. How was that vacation? You do anything fun? See any cool weapons? Kill any monsters? Enjoy yourself?" he asked with a grin on his face. It disappeared and his gaze turned to lock on Sora again. "Not too much, of course."

"No..." Sora whimpered.

"Put him down, Qrow," Winter commanded as she walked up beside Ruby. The platinum haired CEO placed one hand on her hip and glared at the old Huntsman. Her sword glinted in the light at her hip, hanging as it was from the belt of her suit styled combat outfit of white and blue. Her hair was in a bun, though a few messy strands strayed from it. A far cry from how she had been when Sora or Ruby had first met her. "Now."

"Not a chance, Ice Queen. I already offered to help you kill that Neptune kid for being around your sister for so long. I'm doing the same thing here."

Winter placed a hand on her hip and gestured at Qrow with her off hand. "I didn't ask you to help me kill him," Winter pointed out dryly.

Qrow scoffed indignantly at Winter and said, "I still offered."

The Schnee's blue eyes narrowed and she took a threatening step towards the Huntsman. "Qrow..." she growled.

Sora hit the ground with a quiet thud and looked up in surprise. Qrow had turned into his namesake animal and was flying away. Winter's eyes widened in anger. "You're... Running!? Qrow, come back here!" She took off after him. "Qrow, now!"

Sora and Ruby watched them go together, the crow screeching in surprise and fear as a small army of tiny Nevermores flew after him and began to attack. "So... it was nice to see Qrow again," Sora noted. He pushed himself to his feet and moved over next to Ruby; the two laced their fingers together without a thought. He looked over at her. "I can't wait till the others get here, too! They won't threaten to kill me, after all."

"Yeah. Qrow's a little..."

"Scary?" Sora suggested. The two looked at one another and began to laugh together.

Ruby shook her head and, through her laughter, said, "Yeah, that sounds right."

They looked up at the sky and leaned backwards together, just plopping down in the sand. "Ah... Now it's time to just..." Sora yawned. "Just chill."

Ruby yawned too and inched closer to him. "Yeah... Sounds good."

Sora leaned his cheek onto her hair and smiled contentedly.

"Oh, no you don't!" Sora's eyes flew open. Why did this always happen to him.

"Gotta go, Rubes!" he shouted, pushing away from her and sprinting off, a blonde ball of hair, flames, and rage following close behind.

"SORA! FIVE MONTHS WITH RUBY! ALONE! TOO LONG! KILL YOU!"

"Yang, you know it was only a few weeks to us!"

"... STILL TOO LONG!"

Ruby sat up and watched her sister chase Sora down the beach. "Should we help him?" Jaune asked as he walked up beside her.

"Eh... I really don't want to get in her way," Ruby muttered, a shiver of fear running down her spine.

"Yeah. She's scary," Jaune agreed with a grimace. He plopped down in the sand next to Ruby.

Ruby nodded and shuddered. "Yeah, that sounds right."


	12. Homecoming

**AN: Yo! Sorry it's been so long. I had finals. It was rough but it's over! Not a moment too soon, honestly.**

 **Anyways, I'm excited for Christmas, being home with my family, and having fun. I hope you guys all have a good time, too!**

 **Anyways, my favorite part of ANs, responses!**

 **To gamelover41592: Thanks! Yeah, I am doing the Kingdom Hearts 2 formula of coming back, though I'll be doing most worlds three times and one of them twice with something else replacing the third go of that world. It'll be good, though, so don't worry.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: I'm always excited when I post. I love this story. I'm happy the fight with Lionheart was as intense as I'd meant for it to be, and I thought it was a good change from the movie itself to fit the KH style a bit more.**

 **To GuestWithIdeas: Hey, there's no such thing as late reviewing to me. I'm just glad that you did it at all! And you're right; one of the big themes for the story is trust, and it'll stay important from here on out. I've been thinking over ways to include Volume 5 in this story and... I have a few ideas for a third SMHS story that I hope to get to after this one, and that's the place Oscar would fit the best, actually. Specific characters might pop up during this one section later on; I'll figure it out as I watch Volume 5. No, Adam isn't the one behind Zootopia. What's happening in Zootopia is connected to the big threat of the story, though not necessarily because the antagonist planned it. After all, not everything in KH is Xehanort's fault. Most, sure, but not all. The Academy's connection with Remnant's governments should also be delved into more, even if it isn't key to this specific story. As for Emerald, Mercury, and Genie, I do have some fun planned there. They have to run into Sora eventually and have a reunion, right?**

 **To Remnant7: I'm glad this has been great so far! I do love Devil is a Part Timer! It's just an absurdly good series; like it really shouldn't be as good as it is. Sadly, I don't really think I'll use it. I'm trying to limit the worlds to four. It was just a personal choice to avoid spreading myself too thin on things. But you're right; the theme of dark versus evil is going to come into play soon.**

 _ **Chapter 12: Homecoming**_

"Is... is Yang ever going to stop chasing Sora?" Jaune wondered aloud, having watched Yang chase Sora for nearly an hour. The sun was high in the sky, now, approaching the overhead of midday. He grimaced as one of her Firaga spells soared through the air and exploded behind Sora, the Keyblade wielder jumping over the attack to dodge it. Glass exploded out from where the flames hit the sand and Sora landed on one foot, barely keeping his balance to keep running away.

"Speaking from personal experience, no," Qrow muttered. He was hanging upside down from a tree, ice keeping him frozen to its trunk."She will hunt until she kills."

"Or until someone stronger forcefully stops her," Winter pointed out.

"Stronger?" Qrow smirked. Winter narrowed her eyes and began smirking evilly over at Qrow and summoning a shower of ice along the edge of her sword. The wall of frost holding him began to creep towards his jawline.

"W-W-Winter... C-Cold..." Qrow muttered, to no avail. "St-stop, p-please."

"Shh... The cold will prevent your brain cells from dying," Winter elaborated as she walked over and crouched to stand face to face with Qrow. "Which must be a problem given you think I'm not stronger than you."

"Win..." Qrow growled behind gritted teeth.

"She's right, though. Yang's going to do this until someone stops her," Ruby said with a shrug. She watched Sora barely dodge another fireball.

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "And... you aren't going to do it?"

Ruby thought for a moment before, in her family's trademark manner, shrugged and said, "... Nope..."

Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose, exasperated. "You're gonna make me do it, aren't you?" Jaune grumbled.

"... Yup..."

Jaune sighed in defeat before pushing himself up to his feet. "Yang!" he shouted, hands cupped around his mouth. "Yang! Hey, Yang! Stop! We have things we need to talk with him about, remember!?"

"Don't care!" Yang screamed. A thunderbolt struck Sora's heels and he yelped.

"If you don't, I'll tell them about which animal you were!"

The blonde slid to a stop and glared over at Jaune. "You wouldn't dare, Dog Breath..."

"Hop to it," he retorted before crossing his arms and glaring at her.

There was a tense silence as the two glared at one another for a full minute before, finally, Yang relented and walked back over to Jaune and her sister. Sora watched her go for a little while, hiding behind a tree for a minute. "Uh... is it safe to come out now?"

"I think so, Sora," Winter stated simply. She motioned for him to come back and he soon decided to sprint towards everyone.

"Thanks a lot, Rubes," Sora grumbled jokingly. "You let your uncle and sister attack me without doing anything to save me!?"

Ruby glared dryly at him. "You could've easily beaten both of them if they were together," she pointed out.

"Easily!?" Yang and Qrow shouted indignantly.

"Don't be silly, Qrow, you know it's true," Winter interjected, patting his cheek patronizingly.

"No it's not..." he grumbled, sounding like a petulant child.

"Come on, Qrow, I could easily beat you guys if I felt like it," Sora pointed out as he walked up, lacing his fingers together behind his head and grinning. "You've seen me fight, right?"

Jaune jumped in before Yang and Qrow, who were slowly boiling with rage at how _everyone_ thought he could easily beat them – and also at how true it was – could explode. "Sora, it's great to see you again!" he jumped forward and hugged the other keyblade wielder. "It's been too long!"

"Jaune!" Sora wrapped his arms around his friend's back and grinned. "How are you, man?"

Jaune let go and took a step back. "Good, um... We, Yang and I, we just need to talk with you and Professor Ozpin."

"Oz isn't here." The group looked over at Qrow, still upside down on the tree. "He's busy dealing with the last few inspections of our brand new Beacon Two."

"More like Diet Beacon," Ruby said pointedly, pride for her school – the school where she would be working in the next few months – beating out her manners. She smirked and crossed her arms, doing her best Weiss impression. "We all know which school is best!"

"Yeah, up top!" Yang shouted. She and Ruby clapped hands together as Sora and their uncle glared at the sisters. "Oh, what, we hurt your feelings?"

"Yang, we're busy, remember?" Jaune hissed.

"Ugh... yeah, you're right..." she mumbled. She sighed and glanced at Qrow. A somewhat guilty look crossed her features and she was forced to look away.

Her unusual, sudden, somber mood caught the old warrior's attention immediately. "What is it?" Qrow asked. Flames erupted in his hands and the ice around him melted quickly. His hand shot out and caught him before he could hit the ground and he flipped to the balls of his feet. "Yang, what's wrong?" Jaune frowned and wondered the same himself. Yang hadn't been this quiet and conflicted in a long time. She'd been loud, even when her mom had showed up. Angry and lou – Jaune could nearly have slapped himself. He'd been too invested in OJ to see it; Morrigan had more of an effect on Yang than he'd thought.

The brawler sighed, a deep noise that traveled from deep in her lungs. "A lot happened, Uncle Qrow." She looked up and shook her head, a forced grin on her face. "We ran into Mom's Nobody! She's fine. Angry, as usual, maybe a little... oh, you know... Bitchy. Tried to kill us! Lost her, though. Too bad."

Jaune frowned. "So, tell him who saved us, Vomit Boy!" Yang shouted over at him suddenly.

He flinched and stared at her forced grin for a while. "Uh..." She didn't want to talk about Raven's Nobody anymore. About her mom trying to kill her. Well, least he could do is help her with that. "Okay, Yang. Er... I met – I mean, _we_ met another Keyblade Wielder."

"Wow! Who is he?" Ruby shouted, eyes wide. "No, better questions! What'd the Keyblade look like!? Can he transform it!? Into what!? Oh! Oh! Oh! Does he carry around another weapon!?"

Jaune suddenly felt very unsure about how to answer these questions. They were all very tied up with the first question. "Uh... He's me."

Everyone flinched back, eyes wide at the honestly unbelievable news. "A... Another Jaune?" Ruby muttered in disbelief.

Sora became uncharacteristically serious. "A replica?" he asked, memories of Xehanort's final body returned. He briefly worried the other Keyblade wielder had somehow survived. Perhaps he had returned following the death of his Nobody... But then who had killed his Heartless?

"No. At least, we're pretty sure that he isn't," Jaune explained, shaking his arms in front of himself. "Actually, he's real! One hundred percent certified Jaune Arc."

"Ugh..." Yang groaned. "Those are the exact same words OJ used..."

"Exactly. More proof me and OJ are both real Jaune Arc," Jaune pointed out. It just earned another groan from Yang.

"So what happened? Who is he if not a Replica?" Sora asked. He was scratching his cheek, trying to come up with an answer on his own. "You say he's real, so not a shapeshifter... A time traveler, maybe? Like Xehanort did?"

Yang shook her head. "No. It's a bit weirder than that."

"He's from another universe," Jaune blurted out, unsure of how else to say it.

Everyone except Winter just blinked in confusion. The CEO of Schnee Industries frowned and placed a hand on her chin. "Some of our company's scientists had been hypothesizing the existence of other universes that exist parallel to ours. I had always assumed that the theory would lead to the conclusion that the worlds you travel to in the Gummi Ship are those universes, but the existence of this other Jaune..." She looked up. "I don't understand it much myself, I've really only glanced at their research. At the very least, I agree it's possible."

"You're cute when you know things."

Winter looked over at Qrow, who was grinning at her, a sly grin on his features. "If that were the measurement of cute, Qrow, how could anyone be attracted to you?" she mocked the warrior.

"I know some things you like," he said, the grin turning more and more lewd.

Winter blushed. "Qrow, not now!" she hissed.

"Yeah, I'd rather not hear about you two... You knowing..." Yang glanced over at Ruby and Sora. "Especially in front of the kids."

"Kids?" Ruby asked indignantly

Sora scratched the back of his head. "What's 'you knowing?'" He grinned sheepishly and looked around at everyone's unamused glares. His cheeks turned a bright red. "O-oh... Right, I really should've gotten that."

"So, about OJ. What's his story?" Qrow cut in.

"It's... not good," Jaune said. He shook his head. "He used Xehanort's Keyblade to help his version of Ruby fight Salem after everyone else had died. You, Ren, Nora, Weiss, Qrow, Ozpin – everybody. They lost."

Qrow's jaw went slack for a moment, then tightened with shock and rage. "Oh..."

"Yeah," Jaune said.

"He woke up here after you guys beat Salem and kick started the universe," Yang continued. She gestured at her sister and Sora. "He's been keeping an eye on all of us, but not too close. He says he didn't think we'd like another Jaune around." Yang looked over at their Jaune. "To be fair, one is a handful already."

"... Was that a pun about your robot hand?" Jaune asked, deflated

The blonde bombshell grinned. "Always."

"That was pretty bad, Sis" Ruby said, looking pained.

Sora looked like he agreed, and he laughed at everything. "The worst."

"Tai would've liked it," Qrow said with a shrug. "But his humor is worse than yours, Yang."

"Can we just get back to the task at hand?" Jaune asked, knowing more time dedicated to this would only mean more Yang puns.

"Now you too?" Sora asked. He shook his head at Jaune. "Come on, Jaune, you've been spending too much time with Yang."

"That was an accident!" Jaune snapped, desperately hoping that he hadn't meant to do it. Surely it had just slipped out, right?

"Okay, sure," Yang said, wrapping her arm around her shoulders. She winked before leaning in and whispering, "I'm so proud!"

The Keyblade Warrior deflated. "It was an accident..." Jaune muttered.

"Irregardless of those two and their poor attempts at humor," Winter said, her commanding tone drowning out the protestations of Jaune that it had been an accident, "we should refocus on the question of... 'OJ.'" She turned back to Jaune and Yang. "Well? What is his goal?"

"To keep going. Move into another timeline until he finds a version of Pyrrha without another one of me – of us," Jaune explained, placing his hand on the armor covering his torso. "He just wants to find a place he can belong."

"I can understand that, but he does know he can belong with all of us, right?" Sora pointed out, a sad frown gracing his features.

Ruby agreed with a vigorous nod. "If he's you, then that means he's our friend. He'll always belong with us."

Qrow asked the important question. "Can he be trusted?" Everyone's heads whipped towards the veteran Huntsman. The man crossed his arms and sighed at the angry looks the younger warriors were giving him, though Winter seemed to understand where the question was coming from. "Look, I don't know what else to ask. We have no idea if his world was exactly like ours before Salem destroyed it or if it wasn't. If he told you it is, he's the only one who can corroborate his own story. That's not evid-"

"He can be trusted." Jaune looked over at Yang, who had taken a step forward upon speaking. She clenched her fist at her side for a moment before releasing the tension, saying, "He's like Jaune, he saved our lives from Morrigan, and he just wants to move on. Jaune trusts him, so I trust him."

Jaune felt his mouth go dry. She had said she'd trust OJ if Jaune did, but... but saying it in front of everyone and defending OJ to Qrow. He flinched when he noticed her lilac eyes on him. "He asked for our help, owned up to any mistakes he made, and is willing to help us when we need it. He's trustworthy. Right, Jaune?"

"Y-yeah," he said. He wanted to say thanks or to hug Yang. One felt like it wasn't enough, and the other one made Jaune feel like Qrow would decapitate him. "He's trustworthy." Qrow narrowed his eyes at the blondes, but said nothing more. In fact, the beach became awkwardly silent.

"Well, if you two think so, I think it'll all be fine!" Sora said, lacing his fingers together at the base of his skull. He grinned. "But enough about him, tell us about all your other adventures!"

"What other weapons did you see!?" Ruby shouted eagerly, ignoring the tension on the beach just like Sora.

"Well, we also found Emerald and Mercury. They're not doing anything... too wrong," Jaune explained with a shrug. "They actually helped us out of a tough spot."

Yang nodded before she took over, saying, "And we found Cloud and Sephiroth."

"What!?" Sora jumped forward and grabbed Yang by the shoulders. "You what?"

"Cloud and Sephiroth. We lost them on this world Gaia, but there was big swords and connected Hearts. We think they're alive, but..."

"Cloud's alive," Sora muttered resolutely, completely sure. He let out a light, relieved laugh and ran a hand through his hair, the surprise finally hitting him. "D-did he remember the Keyblade? Me?!"

Jaune's eyes drifted to the ground. "He didn't remember anything, Sora..." Jaune mumbled, voice apologetic.

"Oh... Well, it's not the first time my friends have forgotten who I am!" Sora said, face becoming bright after a brief moment of pain. "It probably won't be the last!"

Jaune grinned at the younger man's upbeat attitude. "Well, where'd you guys -" Then a pink and silver missile hit him in the back and he landed face first in the sand.

"JAUNE!" a pair of familiar, excited voices shouted.

"I told you not to attack him, you moro – Sister! How are you?" another voice, this one haughty and cold, though it audibly flinched when the person it belonged to saw Winter.

"Oh, just let them have their fun, Weiss," Blake said, her monotone voice barely betrayed by a quiver of laughter. "It's been five months for all of us!"

"Blake!"

"Weiss!"

"Yang!"

"Ruby!"

"Neptune!"

"Sun!"

"NORA!"

Jaune groaned as the weight on his back disappeared and he was allowed to push himself up to his feet. "Ow... AGH!" he groaned, rubbing the small of his back, then he turned around and screamed as he was lifted off the ground, the sudden force making his eyes slam shut. He opened them after a moment of being bounced up and down, two pairs of arms wrapped around his shoulders. "Guys!" He hugged Ren and Nora back, tightening the embrace and laughing along with the two of them, bouncing in a circle.

Qrow kept frowning. He'd have to talk with Oz about all this.

"Guys, what have you been up to?" Jaune asked, laughter still permeating his words when they finally let him down to the ground. He looked between them grin widening all the time.

"We've been helping out with everything going in Vale throughout the past few months," Ren explained. He smiled softly as his hand slipped into Nora's, the movement completely natural after their months together. The smile disappeared slightly when he began to speak again. "The Heartless keep appearing in the cities and towns, taking people. Everyone is afraid and the councils have no idea how to counter them yet, so we've been offering our services to show Huntsmen how to fight them." Ren grew quiet and frowned. "People are afraid, and the Grimm can tell."

"But we're keeping people safe. It's helping a lot!" Nora said, her boundless joy shining through. She rolled her eyes. "Honestly the most annoying part is how the Councils keep asking about Sora and the Keyblade. They get all flushed and creepy. Seriously, I swear that every time their eyes turned into keys and shot out of their heads!"

"That was a dream, it was one time, and you said they all looked like Spruce Willis," Ren pointed out dryly. "Though I will concede they are quite pushy when it comes to the Keyblade. Almost no one knows anything, so they keep offering us money, cars, anything that they think will make us talk."

"Dammit," Qrow grumbled upon hearing this. He looked over at Winter. "I thought your little outburst would have at least gotten Oz and the kids a year of peace."

"I had assumed they would only go after Schnee Corporation for information," Winter gave her own opinion on the councils' hunt for information. "We are heavily involved in the day to day operations on Destiny Island, and the others who know anything are very close to Sora and Ruby."

"People like the Councilors don't understand connections like that. Politicians'd sell each other out for a few hundred Lien, so they'll go after the kids thinking they're the same," Qrow explained sadly. He sometimes wished for the ignorant hope of his youth. "Of course, somehow, they do care about keeping the Kingdoms alive. Can't be corrupt if the country is gone."

The beach got awkwardly quiet again. "So... Jaune... You know what it is in a few days, right?"

"What?" the blonde asked, not noticing the pained look on his team mate's face.

Ren looked nervous, as if he didn't want to say. Finally, he sighed, "Her birthday."

Jaune palled. "Oh..." _Pyrrha_. "I'd... I'd forgotten. It's – I mean, it's only been a couple weeks for me, so I... I can't believe that I..." He looked at the ground. How could he forget? He felt like he'd betrayed her memory by forgetting her birthday.

"Jaune, you didn't miss it, so don't worry," Nora stated, her grin turning into a soft smile. "Now that you understand time is so weird, you'll be here for it, won't you?"

"Yeah..." Jaune muttered, still troubled by the fact he had forgotten the anniversary of Beacon's fall was coming up. A year passed without Pyrrha and he was starting to feel... normal. That felt almost wrong.

He was torn from his thoughts by Sora's loud voice changing the topic of the conversation. "Well, what have the rest of you been up to?" he asked, eyes bright and a grin on his face as he looked around. His eyes caught Jaune's for a moment and it became clear he had done this for Jaune – he didn't want the other Keyblade Wielder fixated on something that wasn't his fault. Jaune silently thanked him for the distraction and focused on what Weiss was about to say.

"Well Neptune and I have been been quite busy," Weiss answered first, gesturing first at the blue haired young man at her side who was giving the ocean an untrusting glare, and then at herself. "Anyone who wants to teach at Atlas Academy has to undergo a three month training course overseen by an officer of the Atlesian military that deals with topics such as advanced military tactics, advanced combat training, and how to educate students."

"There was a physical test..." Neptune grumbled, crossing his arms and purposefully looking away from the water.

Weiss rolled her eyes and slapped Neptune's shoulder with her left hand. "Oh, he's just angry that we had to take a swim test."

"Oh... I thought you were over the whole 'afraid of water' thing," Ruby supplied, more than a little confused. "After all, you saved Weiss even though you were surrounded by fake water."

"Sorry you didn't pass," Yang said as sincerely as she could manage.

"I passed!" Neptune shouted indignantly.

Yang blinked once. "Then what's the problem?"

"I didn't _like_ it," Neptune grumbled again.

"Welp, gotta toss him in the ocean before we leave!"

"SUN!" Neptune snapped at his best friend. His fists clenched at his sides and he took an angry step towards the laughing monkey Faunus. "Don't you dare!"

"Neptune..." Weiss muttered. She placed one hand on his shoulder. "Don't embarrass yourself."

Neptune deflated at the look in her eyes. He sighed, "You mean don't embarrass you, don't you?"

Yang laughed. "She means both!"

Neptune narrowed his eyes at the blonde brawler laughing boisterously at him, then sighed again. "Sorry, Snow Angel..."

Sun snorted, then under his breath chuckled and said, "Whipped..."

"Sun..."

"Sorry!" the golden haired Faunus said hurriedly upon hearing Blake's disappointed warning.

Sora and Ruby exchanged a glance, then both snorted and began to laugh at both Neptune _and_ Sun. "Oh, you guys are both so funny to watch!" Ruby said between laughs. She stood up as tall as she could and made her voice mockingly deep. "'I'm Neptune and I don't like water!'"

Sora laughed harder before puffing his chest out, too. "'I'm Sun, and I think I'm tough!'"

"Children, both of you," Weiss scoffed, though she was smiling despite her mocking words towards the other warriors. "Dust, how did I manage to miss you two?"

"Our magnetic personalities?" Sora asked, appearing on her right side, a swirling Magnet spell in his right hand.

"We hold the keys to your friendship?" Ruby suggested, Crescent Rose appearing in her left hand in a bright flash.

Everyone laughed, save Yang. "Seriously!? If I'd made those jokes you'd all groan!" she snapped at the surrounding group.

"Maybe they just have better delivery," Blake said between light chuckles.

"Ugh... whatever," Yang hissed, her hair slowly taking on a dangerous, fiery glow. She slammed her foot into the sand and pointed at Blake, putting her finger directly in the cat Faunus' face. Desperate for a change of topic, the blonde bombshell shouted: "And what have you been up to, Blake? Sun hasn't tried any monkey business, has he?"

The laughter immediately ceased. Yang looked around at the group, now shaking their heads at her. "I... Seriously!?" she snapped.

Blake sighed and pushed her friend's finger out of her face. "Calm down, Yang, we all just need to accept some of us are good at some things, and some of us aren't. You can blow things up better than military grade Dust, but your jokes bomb." The blonde's eyebrow twitched at that joke, though no one laughed – they knew what was good for them. "And to answer your question, we've been looking for any remaining factions of the White Fang."

"We've beaten down dozens of White Fang idiot jerkwads that were running around trying to follow Adam Taurus' example of being an idiot jerkwad," Sun said, placing his fists on his hips. His tail curled up behind him a little bit.

"Or helping the cells that had wanted out of his plans from the start," Blake said. "The kinds of groups that were afraid of where Adam was leading them, that wanted to go back to the way the White Fang should have been. A force for equality and peace."

Sun laughed once. "You should have seen them when Blake started talking like this in front of them. Dust, I'm sure they would've elected you the new leader right there if you'd bothered to stay longer than five minutes!" he said, a wide grin on his face. "And who wouldn't want a leader like you? Pretty smart, pretty kind, pretty brave... pretty."

"Thanks for remaining serious, Sun," Blake muttered. She glanced away from him, and fought down a small blush on her cheeks. "The ethical imbalance still needs to be addressed peacefully. The next leader of the White Fang can't just come in and beat down every opinion that disagrees with hers."

"Oh, you think you'd get the job, too," Yang said, punching her old partner in the shoulder. The cat Faunus hissed in pain and began to rub her exposed shoulder. "What, you _don't_ want to help lead the world into making a better society?"

Blake sighed and let her hand drop. "I'll just be happy to be part of it at all, Yang. You know that," she said simply.

Sun wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Aw, we're just teasing you! We know you'll get the job, so might as well make jokes about it while we still can!" he said, curling his tail around her waist. "Come on, at least now we'll have another story to tell at your inauguration party!"

"Sun, it doesn't matter. We still have a lot of work to do, remember?" she supplied coolly. "We'll be working at Shade academy teaching magic, remember? And then we'll have to hunt down Adam's top lieutenant."

"That chainsaw guy is still out there?" Weiss asked, voice slightly higher than usual. She frowned and thought back to her fight with the man on the train sent to blow a hole in Vale's defenses a few weeks before the Vytal Festival began. She shook her head as she realized she'd been barely a child with a weapon back then. Now? "Well, he won't stand a chance when you find him. We aren't the same children we were, and you beat the crazy jerk yourself. If he was Adam's second in command, you shouldn't have any trouble."

"Thanks, Weiss," Blake said, a real grin on her face. "Hard to believe that the first time we met you called all Faunus ruffians."

"Not _all_ Faunus!" Weiss protested, sounding a bit like an indignant child.

"Wow, Weiss. I didn't know that, you big jerk," Sora joked, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"Really? More of an Ice Queen than a Snow Angel," Neptune continued. He was gifted with a backhand that sent him to the ground. He groaned, his face buried in the sand. "Too far... got it..."

"Besides, _this_ _one_ is Ice Queen," Qrow said as he wrapped his arm around Winter's waist and pulled her close. He rested his chin on her shoulder and grinned. "But her love for me has thawed her frozen heart."

"You're lucky I like you," Winter growled at the man holding onto her. She leaned her head against his. _"Very_ lucky."

"Obviously," Qrow agreed completely.

"Ew, we don't need to see you two canoodling!" Ruby said, waving her arms frantically in front of her as she commanded her uncle and Weiss' sister to separate. "Come on show some decorative!"

"Decorum," Weiss noted dryly.

"Yeah! Decor!"

"Still wrong," Blake pointed out.

"Look, why don't you kids just... go get changed." Qrow let go of Winter and pointed at the large ship adorned with an elegant Schnee snowflake that he and Winter had arrived in. Parked beside it was a pair of gummi ships along with a pair of smaller ships, and a dune buggy a short distance away.

"What about you two?" Jaune wondered aloud.

Qrow took on a lecherous grin. "Oh, you know... We'll make do."

Winter rolled her eyes. "We'll change after you," she corrected as she shoved him to the ground.

"Awesome! Time for our beach day!" Sora shouted, throwing his hands straight up and laughing excitedly. He turned and pointed at the ship. "Last one changed blows up the floaties!"

"Just remember no peeking, Keyboy, or I'm tearing your head off!" Yang snapped, shaking an angry, tightly closed fist at the back of the boy's head. "That said... I'm not gonna be last!" She took off, close behind him.

Jaune sprinted after her, keeping pace. "Me neither! I'm not doing that again!"

Neptune, Blake, Sun, and Ruby went next, with Ruby easily running to the front of the pack using her Semblance. "I... Hey! Guys! Wait up!" Weiss shouted angrily. She stamped her foot. "Neptune! Gah!" She took off after the others, too. "I swear, if I'm the last one out..!"

 _ **S M H S**_

Weiss cast the angriest glare she could manage at Neptune as she inserted the tip of Myrtenaster into the opening of the large floaty. He was standing beside her, just beyond the edge of the water's reach. "What, Snow Angel?" he asked. He grinned nervously. "Come on, you aren't really angry, are you?"

A weak Aero spell exploded from her weapon's tip and the float filled up. Weiss' anger flared up when Neptune chuckled nervously, and the pool toy exploded from the sudden burst of air pressure. "Ach!" Neptune shouted. He flinched backwards, then turned to look more closely at her angry glare. "Um... I'm sorry?"

Weiss' eyes narrowed and she pointed Myrtenaster at him. "Um... what's -"

"Watera!" she snapped, and a torrential spring of blue flew out of her fencing blade's tip, crashing into Neptune's chest and sending him soaring into the ocean. He landed with a huge splash between Sun and Sora, the explosion of water causing rain to fall over the two and the floats they were sitting on to flip over. Weiss stood up straight. "Now I'm _less_ angry..."

"Hey! That was great!" Sora shouted as he surged out of the water. He turned and saw Neptune floating face up in the water. "And you really _aren't_ freaking out about water anymore!"

"Aw, man. I wanted to make fun of you some more," Sun muttered sadly as he broke the surface too. "Good job, ruining my fun, Neptune!"

Neptune said nothing, simply floating there and staring up at the sky. "Did he die?" Sora asked, confused and unsure. He poked Neptune's cheek. No response.

"Hm... Let's see," Sun responded before slamming his hands down in the water around Neptune's head. The water splashed upward and slapped Neptune across the face.

"Hey!" the blue haired guy snapped, pulling his feet down and standing up. "Don't try that again you... jeez, just stop!"

"Woops!" Sun said, putting his hands up defensively. "That was an accident!"

"Yeah, right..." Neptune muttered, annoyed.

"Stop being so loud! I'm trying to relax," Qrow commanded from the long beach chair where he was laying down, sunglasses shielding his eyes as he tried to get a tan. Winter was in another chair, looking over Schnee Corp reports on her Scroll and taking slow drinks of a whiskey on the rocks. Qrow yawned and looked over at the woman beside him. "You have anything to add? One of the trouble makers is _your_ responsibility, after all."

Winter didn't look up. "Weiss, remember that a good sneak attack will draw as little attention as possible."

Qrow looked up at Winter and caught her eye with the look on his face. "What?" she asked.

"God, you're amazing," he muttered sincerely before leaning back into the chair.

Winter blinked. "Obviously." Then she settled back into reading the reports on her Scroll.

"Hey! Who's ready for some fun!?" Ruby sprinted out of the ship, having run back in to grab something a moment before. She was dressed in a one piece that made Sora blush the same deep red as its main color, it had black, rose-stem like designs that traced from her back, down the curve of her side and to her back again. Yang and Jaune were behind her, walking side by side. He was dressed in a pair of shorts, white with golden trim and a golden sun design running down the outside of either leg. Yang, meanwhile, was in a two piece, mainly yellow with black ties on the top and both sides of the bottom. Ruby held a volleyball above her head and roared. "VOLLEYBALL!"

"Ruby. Quiet."

"Sorry, Uncle Qrow," she muttered sheepishly. Sora looked up at her and smiled, hoping Yang couldn't see him staring. She did and managed to catch his eye with a quick flare up of her hair that only Sora – and Jaune, who stood right next to her and received the brunt of the sudden flame's heat – noticed. "I'm just excited for us to play a game like this again! A day of fun in the sun!"

"Without a volleyball net?" Sun asked quizzically.

"Nope. Miss Last Place? If you'd do the honors?" Ruby asked the white haired huntress next to her. Weiss glowered at her for a full minute before slamming Myrtenaster into the ground. Ice magic exploded through the ground and shot up, creating a lattice a few feet above the sandy surface and trailing out to the edge of the ocean itself to create another pole rooted in the beach. Ruby raised the volleyball over her head again. "VOLLEYBALL!"

"What'll the teams be?" Sora asked, sprinting up to the beach in his black and red, crown print shorts. "Who against who?"

"Dibs on captain!" Weiss snapped before the conversation could continue. She coughed nervously and smoothed down her swimsuit cover, an all white terrycloth jumpsuit. "I'll be one of the captains."

"Okay, then I'll be the other," Sun said. He gestured at Weiss. "You pick first, Icy."

"Ruby," Weiss said immediately.

"That was fast..." Sora muttered quietly.

Sun laughed. "Then I'll choose Yang."

"Blake."

"That's dirty..." Sun muttered. He grabbed Neptune by the shoulder. "Neptune!"

"Ren!"

"Nora."

"Sora," Weiss said with a devious grin.

"I... dammit..." Sun muttered. How could he forget..? "Jaune."

"I feel a little insulted," Jaune muttered as the teams separated. "Last pick?"

Yang grabbed him around the neck with her left arm. "Ah, you were only being compared to Sora. Don't take it so personally!"

"Sure," Jaune grumbled. Nonetheless, he dragged his feet across the sand with Yang to stand a little bit away from one side of the frozen net. She took a spot next to him and shook her head, grinning. "What?"

"You must be standing there to catch a look when I spike the ball, huh?" she asked, giving him a wink.

Jaune blanched, then blushed. "Yang, you stood there _after_ me," he pointed out. He turned back to the net. "And why are you teasing me in a different way now?"

"You haven't been sick in the ship in forever, so how can I tease you like I always have?" Yang said. She laughed at Jaune's uncomfortable glare, but stopped when she realized it wasn't uncomfortable. It was pained. "Hey... you okay?"

Jaune looked over. "Fine," he said. He shook his head. "I'm fine."

Yang nodded, not believing the Keyblade wielder. She bit her cheek, thinking."So. You want to introduce me to your sisters tomorrow?" Jaune turned to Yang, eyes wide with surprise. She had her hands on her hips and was watching as Sora tossed the ball up and down in his left hand to serve it and start the game. Yang smiled softly before saying, "I mean, I should really meet my partner's family, shouldn't I? And you know they'll want to meet me. Who wouldn't?"

Jaune stared at her for a moment. "Yeah. I'll call my dad and set it up..." He kept staring at her. "Why not?" He looked back at Sora just as the Keyblade Master tossed the ball up. "Thanks, Yang."

Yang shrugged and watched the ball come right at her. "I just want everyone to have the pleasure of meeting me." She jumped up, black and yellow robotic arm raised above her head, and slammed it into the white sphere. The volleyball bent around her hand for a moment, then the ball rocketed right at Weiss. The heiress grinned coolly and threw her fist out straight at the ball, summoning a glyph that sent it back over the net without any issue.

"Sure," Jaune replied with a grin before getting into the game himself. Sun set the ball and Jaune moved under it. He brought his hands up together, one under the other, and the ball soared to the other side. Ren easily met it, jumping and slamming his heel into the ball as it went high. Nora met it with a wild haymaker to return it to the other side.

"Do you feel outclassed here?" Jaune asked Neptune as the ball continued to be tossed back and forth by ninjas and superhumanly strong fighters.

"Oh, horribly," Neptune responded when Sora jumped fifteen feet into the air and summoned a single reflect hexagon to his hand. The volleyball rebounded at full speed and flew right for the two.

"Blizzareflect!" Jaune shouted, surprise overtaking him. A thin wall of magical ice appeared in front of the two, protecting them from the volleyball that – somehow – had flames appearing all around it. The ball froze over and rebounded immediately, the ice all over it messing with its arc and causing it to land with a dull thud between Weiss and Ren.

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Even Qrow and Winter were staring with surprise at the blonde Keyblade wielder and the ice wall slowly turning back into light in front of him. The game was mostly forgotten by its players, though Yang, who had seen this before, was walking over to the ball to continue playing. "So, I guess that makes it our point," she said, breaking the silence.

"Jaune, what was that!?" Sora shouted, sprinting over and looking at the wall with wide, impressed eyes. "That's so cool! I've never seen magic like this before!"

"Um... It's just kind of happened!" Jaune said while the last of the wall disappeared into Light. "I mean, here or before, it just... happened!"

"It's awesome!" Neptune shouted, eyes wide with admiration. "And not just because it saved our lives from Sora's rocket punch!"

"You were never in danger," Sora said innocently.

Neptune glared dryly at the Keyblade wielder for a moment before turning back to Jaune. "Can you show us how to do it?"

"Uh..." Jaune muttered, a blush coming to his face. He'd never been in this position before. He'd never had a skill no one else had – at least one that could be useful. Sure he could dance like a pro, but that couldn't help him fight. This, though... "I wish. Like I said, it just happens."

"I'll tell Oz about it! Maybe he knows how you can get it under control," Sora said. He held his hand up for a high five. "Jaune, if you can do that now on instinct, I can't wait to see if there's any other kinds of spells you can combine! You made up a whole new kind of magic, man!" Jaune raised his hand and clapped it against Sora's. "That's awesome!"

Jaune grinned nervously and tried to come up with a response. "I... heh..." He was at a lost for words, it seemed.

"Hey, I think this calls for a celebration!" Yang said. She pushed her way through the others, holding a pair of whiskey bottles in her right hand, one with the neck between her index and middle fingers and the other between her middle finger and ring finger.

"Yang!" Weiss hissed, glancing over her shoulder at where Qrow and Winter... Where _had_ Qrow and Winter gone? Her eyes shut. The ship. Of course. The heiress turned back to Yang. "Ruby and Sora are too young!"

"Hey!" the two shouted indignantly.

"Which is why I got these," Yang said, rolling her eyes at Weiss. Her left hand came up, revealing a box of juice pouches. "For the kiddies."

"We're not kiddies!" Sora and Ruby snapped together.

 _ **S M H S**_

"This is good juice!" Sora whispered beside Ruby as they sipped through the straws.

"Mhm!" Ruby agreed with the straw in her mouth.

Yang couldn't help but laugh at the two younger warriors. "What?" Ruby asked when she caught sight of her sister. "What are you laughing at?"

Yang stopped laughing with a sigh. "Just... Never change, you two." Then she picked up the first bottle and unscrewed the top. She looked around at the others and grinned. "And the rest of us should party!" She took a swig of the alcohol and spat it out immediately. "This isn't whiskey!"

She brought the bottle up to her nose and sniffed. "W-water!? I..." She narrowed her eyes and tore the label off, revealing a white piece of paper with a crudely drawn, laughing crow perched on the messy words, _Nice Try, Goldilocks_. "How!?"

"Your uncle seems like he knows every trick in the book," Sun stated when Yang began showing everyone the label.

Weiss gave a relieved sigh. "What are you so happy about?" Yang asked.

"Our names aren't on it," she said. She smiled and pointed at her old team mate. "Only yours!"

Yang put down the first bottle, then picked up the other and tore the label off. Her eyes never left Weiss' the entire time, and showed no emotion either, and she revealed a message on the second bottle. It was a snowflake positioned behind well drawn letters spelling out, _I am disappointed, sister._

Weiss' eyes fell to the ground. "Oh..." Her groan sounded eternal. Broken.

"It'll be okay, Snow. You didn't actually take them," Neptune pointed out placatingly. He put his arm around her shoulder. "I tell you what, we'll stuff it with the label on in Yang's things and everything will be her fault."

"WHAT!?" Yang snapped.

Weiss perked up. "Well, I suppose I can live with that," she muttered. She looked over at Neptune. "Though... Fine... I forgive you for abandoning me during the race."

"How gracious, Angel," he said with an overly done bow.

"If you try that, I'm killing you both! I'm not taking the fall for something you all agreed to!" she shouted. She pointed at everyone around her. "I'll drag you all down with me!"

Jaune sighed and buried his face in one hand. It didn't take veteran huntsmen to figure out ten young adults – one of them _Yang_ – would steal booze at the beach. It also didn't take a genius to figure out that Ruby and Sora would get zero of the blame for this. They were sitting together laughing about juice like five year olds after all. For people who saved the world, they sometimes seemed... very, very young.

"Fine!" Yang's shout broke Jaune out of his thoughts. "If we can't drink, we'll do this other good thing I was thinking of!"

"I'm almost scared to ask, but what is that?" Blake asked. Nora was excitedly jumping up and down, somehow, despite the fact she was sitting down and Ren was watching her do so with a confused albeit impressed expression on his face.

Yang threw her fist into the air. "Strip poker! Everyone but the kids!"

The "Kids" didn't bother responding. They were currently engrossed in a fighting game they were playing against one another on their Scrolls.

There was no reply for a little while as everyone except Sora and Ruby stared in disbelief at the blonde's smug grin. She looked like she thought she'd come up with the best idea ever. "NO!" The entire group snapped.

Her fist fell and she rubbed the back of her neck, feeling slightly awkward as she did. "... Normal poker?"

 _ **S M H S**_

"Are you okay?" Yang asked from where she leaned against a pine tree, standing just next to Jaune. He was paralyzed, just staring through things instead of at them. His blue eyes were glazed over and his jaw was so tight it looked like he was about to shatter his teeth. He didn't respond, still frozen over completely. "Vomit Boy? Puppy? Jaune!"

His head snapped to the right and he locked eyes with the brawler. "Wha?" he asked, suddenly very confused. He shook his head. "Um... what's wrong? What's going on?"

"Jaune, you've been staring at the door to your childhood home for ten minutes. If you wait much longer, your dad is probably going to come out here and ruin the surprise himself. And do you want that after they worked so hard to get all _seven_ of your sisters here from a bunch of different places nearly overnight?"

"I'm still surprised they managed to swing that. One night out of the blue?" Jaune asked with a chuckle. His smile grew. "They're a better family than I appreciated."

"Hey, I know all about unappreciated family," Yang said, placing one hand on her chest. "I _am_ unappreciated family, remember?"

Jaune let out a dry laugh. "How could I forget? You being unappreciated means I almost die, though. I think awkward exchanges are a few levels better than that," Jaune pointed out, but this only earned him a grin from the brawler.

"I don't know. We get to fight because of mine," Yang retorted.

"We might fight here..." Jaune muttered, remembering how his sisters had all been _much_ better than him at fighting when they were younger. They hadn't been passionate about it, however, and had gone on to do other things with their lives, leaving the one with the least natural talent to try to be a Huntsman. Still, they probably all kept up with their training, and Huntsman families generally had... rowdy reunions. He'd honestly been surprised that the beach trip hadn't ended with a massive brawl complete with drained Auras and Keyblades altering the landscape.

Yang pointed at the Keyblade Wielder with her robotic hand and her face took on an incredibly serious look. "Hey... don't raise a girl's hopes just to dash them," Yang commanded. She shook her head and crossed her arms again. "It's not cool. Not cool at all."

"I know. My mom taught me manners, Yang," Jaune responded dryly.

"Really? But it's bad manners to throw up on someone's shoes, you know."

Jaune sighed in defeat. "You _cannot_ still hold a grudge about that," he muttered quietly, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You tell me, Vomit Boy." She grinned good naturedly.

Jaune smiled back. "Okay, just... No with the nickname. Please?" Jaune begged. He gestured at his home. "Seven sisters and the nickname _'Vomit Boy?'_ I'd never get out of this alive."

Yang groaned. She sounded like the request was giving her actual, _real_ pain. "Ugh... Fine... But I get to choose the next world we get to visit. I'm thinking we restrict ourselves to places we've been until we fix things there completely."

"What, you don't want other places to be a challenge later on? We beat down Aizen and then never have trouble again?" He rolled his eyes. "I didn't think that was your style."

"You'd rather we spread ourselves thin?"

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "That was... oddly well thought out, Miss Punchy."

"Your last plan was howl like a wolf. When you were a dog. Some plan."

Jaune grimaced. "... Point..."

The two fell quiet for a few moments. "Okay. I guess it's time to head in," Jaune said. He looked over at Yang. "Do I look okay? No food in my teeth?" He grimaced to show her his pearly whites.

"You're as good as you're gonna get," Yang mocked with a shrug.

Jaune shrugged back. "I'll take it."

Yang scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Well, take the lead... _Jaune_."

"Wow, you're keeping your promise." He smiled, a quiet thank you, and moved towards the front door of his home. His heart began pounding as hard as it could and had somehow moved up to his throat. What if they didn't really want to see him? After all, it'd been five months since he had seen his dad... and over a year since he'd seen anyone else from his family. No! He couldn't think like that! They were his family! They loved him! They... Oh, God, he was a war criminal! How could he come home now? How could he – Wait, was he knocking on the door?

"Sunshine!" Jaune grinned nervously and let his mother jump forward to hug him, the woman's red hair hid her face from Yang and draped over his shoulder as she hugged him tight. Jaune anxiously up to her back and hugged her back, feeling slightly calmed by the woman's weight on his shoulder. "My baby is home!" She pushed off and began to kiss Jaune on his cheeks over and over again. "My baby is ho-o-ome!"

"Agh! Mom! Mom, come on! Mom!" Jaune shouted through laughter. The woman ignored him. "Mom, we have company!"

The assault immediately stopped and Yang was suddenly face to face with a very beautiful looking woman in a dark red shirt and blue jeans. She had a thin face, and a nose that was very clearly inherited by Jaune. Her bangs fell in the same way as his, too, unlike Argent's hair that swept apart in a cowlick. Furthermore, the woman was tall, maybe only an inch or two shorter than Yang herself. She looked like she had once been a fighter, and retained the figure for it, but now had the softer edge of a woman who had raised eight children very quickly to adulthood. There was a pink apron tied over her clothes. _Same shade as Pyrrha's,_ Yang thought to herself when her eyes returned to the red hair.

"So... are you treating my son right?" she demanded, hands placed on her hips. She looked very threatening, with the apron almost making it more severe.

"Never," Yang replied simply. She crossed her arms. "It may surprise you, but -" she stifled a snicker "- _Sunshine_ here needs tough love."

Jaune's mother narrowed her gaze on Yang. The blonde warrior was even beginning to feel uncomfortable herself, nearly withering under the gaze. Finally, Jaune's mom turned around and grabbed her son by the arms. "That right there is a keeper, Sunshine!"

"MOM!" Jaune snapped. He caught Yang's eye; the brawler was now not even bothering to hide her snickering from Jaune. She blew a kiss at him and he turned snow white, anger flashing through his veins. "You... Yang is a friend, Mom! She's too immature for _anyone_ to date."

"Oh, and you're one to talk, Sunshine!"

"Stop it!" The two glared at one another silently.

"You two aren't together? Oh..." Jaune's mom looked disappointed. "All I want is for my Sunshine to find someone and be happy..." She sighed and stood up tall and held her hand out to Yang. "I'm Marzenna Arc. Everyone just calls me Marz."

Yang gave her partner a grin. "Yang Xiao Long. And Sunshine _wishes_ he could score a girl like me." Her voice was cocky, but it was clearly a joke. She shrugged. "No, we're... Huntsman partners, nowadays. He's saved my life a few times."

Jaune turned beet red. Yang knew that he had always wanted his family to believe he could cut it as a Huntsman, so the fact she would compliment him in front of them meant a lot to him. Even if his mom was going to over react. "My little Sunshine is good at being a warrior?" Marz asked, eyes wide. She ran back and grabbed her son by the arm, dragging him behind her. "Everyone inside! Your sisters have been waiting for the surprise for over an hour!"

"Honey, are they –? Jaune!" Argent Arc shouted as she rounded the corner to the door. He was wearing a black and silver button up shirt with black slacks. His blonde beard was short, more scruff than the full beard it had been a few months earlier. His hair was the same, however. He walked up and placed a hand on his son's shoulder. Jaune felt his breath catch. His dad – even now he wasn't used to that open pride in his dad's eyes. "Welcome home, Kiddo." Jaune couldn't hold it back anymore. Tears streamed from his face and he jumped forward, hugging his father. His mother watched for a moment and moved forward to hug the both of them.

"Hey, Mom! Dad! Where's this surprise?"

Yang palled as seven very similar looking girls appeared in the doorway. "JAUNEY!" The seven sprinted out and the family hug turned into a mosh pit.

"That's a big family..." Yang muttered, suddenly thankful she only had Ruby for a sibling.


	13. Where the Heart is

**AN: Hey guys! Happy New Year!**

 **Did everyone have a good Christmas season? I did! My parents got me and my sister foam Keyblades for Christmas, and they're awesome. My sister got a Rainfell, and it is so cool looking. I got a Kingdom Key, and I love it. It's so cool!**

 **Anyways, time for a few responses:**

 **To Gamelover41592: I thought it was a fun homecoming, too! I hope you enjoy the little bit of time Jaune gets to spend with his family in this chapter, a little intro for his** ** _SEVEN_** **sisters. Honestly coming up with names was the absolute hardest part.**

 **To ssjzohan: I hope that this family reunion – as short as it is – is as good as you hoped. I hope you did well on the ACT. I remember being stressed about those tests a lot.**

 **To guest(ch 1 review): Hey... Jaune's great! Do not hate on that anxious bundle of nerves! He's too sweet for that.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: Yeah, this chapter isn't as combat heavy, either. There is a section at the end with OJ that's pretty important, actually. I've been watching a lot of FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood again, so I thought I'd toss in a couple Homunculi from a century or two before the show. If you think Jaune's meeting with his family is too short, don't worry. We'll be seeing them again. Really, whenever they pop back in to Remnant. And they definitely have to meet OJ at least once, right? We'll get to see Tai at least once or twice when they head back to Remnant, too. He's not in this chapter, though. As for KH3, ugh... I can't believe I've been waiting for it so long. I'm glad that -za spells are going to be included, though all we've seen of them is in the redone reaction menu.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! I had fun making it.**

 _ **Chapter 13: Where the Heart is**_

Yang was still more than a little uncomfortable around all of Jaune's family, as his seven sisters, mother, and father somehow made the large house appear small. Jaune's oldest sisters, Blanche and Rouge, were twins. They had graduated from Shade academy the year before Ozpin had decided that the discrepancies on Jaune's transcripts didn't matter, both members of team BRWN. They were the only two of his siblings that were full time Huntresses, and often worked together on missions even today. The two looked very similar, both taking after their mother in nearly every aspect, save their father's blue eyes. Blanche had shorter red hair, done in a pixie cut, and wore a pure white jacket with black pants and white shoes, the rising sun of her family's crest appearing on her left hip below an empty weapon sheathe. Rouge, meanwhile, wore a deep red that matched her fiery hair, a battle dress with black tights that led into black and red boots. Unlike her sister, Rouge had long hair done in a long braid running down her back. She vaguely reminded Yang of her own sister, and wondered if that had been one of the reasons that Jaune had been comfortable so quickly around Ruby on the first day at Beacon.

The next of Jaune's siblings were triplets named Soleil, Journe, and Aube. The first two had their father's bright yellow hair and mother's green eyes, standing a few inches taller than their mother and older siblings. Journe wore a yellow sundress and seemed to be the sister that was closest with Jaune, as she sat nearest to him and dominated the conversations with the young man, talking about her newborn son – Jaune. That had made the goofball's eyes tear up and he'd spent ten minutes crying before they could calm him down. Soleil wore a sky blue pantsuit; a small Schnee Corp. symbol was printed on her Scroll. Unlike her siblings, Aube was more evenly split between her parents. Her hair was an auburn-gold in a ponytail that kept most of her long hair out of her face. She had on a normal t-shirt that matched her hair and normal blue jeans. She was an inch taller than her mother and eldest sisters, but a good deal shorter than Jaune and her younger sisters.

Speaking of those younger sisters, Venus and Carli were the only two that had decided against attending a secondary Huntsman academy and had gone on to specialize only in other skills. Venus and Carli were fraternal twins, and Yang slightly felt bad for Carli upon seeing this. Venus was, put simply, a supermodel. And that wasn't just exaggeration. She was, literally, a supermodel. While her siblings were nine-to-fivers in some way, Venus had gone on to be a celebrity. Yang thought she remembered hearing Coco say something about a Venus once, but hadn't expected it to be Jaune's sister. She had long, slightly curled blonde hair and a thin face with a natural smirk. Her eyes were a rare blue-green and she was about the same height as Jaune, though her heels made her a good two inches taller. She was wearing, of course, a very nice and very custom looking dress of a rose pink. Yang was sure that the woman could get with almost anyone she wanted to.

Carli was also attractive, but Yang was sure that she had grown up being considered 'plain' in comparison to her sister. She was shorter, her hair less luxurious, her eyes a normal blue. She didn't look like she minded, however. She had a wider, more open smile than her twin as well as a more natural style to her outfit. A simple button up shirt, pink, with black pants and a pair of workout shoes on her feet. She looked modest, but not self deprecating. Proud of who she was, but not arrogant.

And all seven of them were talking at the same time. Most to Jaune.

Some of them to Yang. It still felt like too many.

"So, how is Jaune treating you?"

Yang sighed. She'd had to deal with this question now... six times? She couldn't even muster a joke anymore, at least not one she hadn't used twice by now. And with Jaune locked in conversation with Journe, looking at pictures of his new nephew, she couldn't even make him uncomfortable with them. "Honestly Carli? The boy doesn't understand women at all," Yang said before putting down a barbeque sandwich on its plate. She looked over at Jaune. "But he's a good guy. Maybe he'll manage to get a girl as good as me one day."

Carli took the information that Jaune was single in stride. "Well, we've been hoping he'd manage to find someone for years," she joked half heartedly. "Mom nearly had a heart attack out of happiness when Dad told us Jauney'd managed to land the girl on the Pumpkin Pete boxes." Her face soured in sadness. "And she cried for him when she heard about what happened at Beacon."

Yang nodded. "He just needed friends to get through it."

"Yeah, we've met Sora, Ruby, Nora, and Ren," Carli said from the other side of the table. "They were the ones that told us about everything that happened. The trial. The conviction." She smiled. "And you busting him out and going on some secretive adventure."

Yang grinned. "He's more than holding his own," Yang admitted happily.

"You mind of I borrow her?" The two girls looked up at Jaune, who was standing way more relaxed than Yang had ever seen him before. Family could do that to people, she supposed.

"No problem," Carli said, getting up. She moved over and gave her brother a quick hug. "It's great to see you, Jauney."

He hugged her back before saying, "You too, Car." She let him go and smiled again before walking off to talk with Journe. Jaune sat down across from Yang.

"You look happy to be home," Yang noted. She grabbed her sandwich and took a messy bite.

"Yeah. It's good to see that they're all okay," he responded. A soft smile came to his face and he observed all of his family. "I'm really happy we got to see them."

Yang nodded before swallowing her bite. "But?"

Jaune groaned and buried his face in his hands. "How am I going to tell them about OJ?"

Yang stiffened at the mention of the other Jaune, but forced herself to calm down. She'd promised Jaune she'd trust him for now. "Well... 'Hey, there's another version of me running around. He'll probably never contact you because he's trying to leave soon anyways and doesn't want to feel like a spare?'"

"Blunt," Jaune retorted dryly, peeking out from between two of his fingers. "But I don't think blunt is good when they know their son is out there, kind of depressed and feeling like he doesn't matter."

Yang shrugged. "Point," she conceded. She took another bite. "Then... You could not tell them. If he's going to be gone anyways then maybe there's no point in getting them worried about something that they'll never deal with."

"No, I'm a terrible liar."

Yang smirked at him. "So you _do_ know."

"Duh," Jaune noted, his glare asking how he couldn't know. "Who's good at lying to their family?"

"No, I meant... Never mind." Yang leaned forward. "So, then... What are you going to do?"

Jaune glared at her caustically. "You're a big help."

Yang shrugged. "I know."

Jaune fell silent and shut his fingers over his eyes again. "I'll... I'll... I'll..."

"'You'll you'll you'll' what?" Yang asked, trying to force him to make a decision. "We've been here for a few hours already, so you've gotta make a choice, Jauney."

He looked up at her solemnly. He sighed and replied, "Okay. But what choice?"

"Well, your dad is the only one who knows about other worlds. Oz and Sora will want to keep it that way," Yang pointed out. She rested her chin on her fist. "But some rules were made to be broken."

"Eh..." Jaune groaned, not sure if he agreed.

"There you go, you have your answer," Yang pointed out after a moment of thought. "You didn't want to break the rules. So don't."

"But that feels so... wrong?"

"Then tell them," Yang hissed, growing bored. "Make a choice and make it fast, Vom-"

"Then no!" he hissed at his partner, forced to voice what he thought was best by her threat of his old nickname. He looked over at them, frowning. "Maybe it's the wrong choice, but I don't want them to be hurt by this. Losing a kid – Mom and my sisters already went through it once. Dad told me that, when he got home after the trial, they thought they'd never see me again. And besides... OJ doesn't want to see them. I don't want them to be hurt by that."

"It's your choice, Plan Guy," Yang replied. She pushed herself up and grabbed her plate. "I'm gonna get another sandwich. You want one?"

Jaune looked up at her. "Yeah. I'll come with you." Then he stood up and the two walked to the kitchen side by side, neither sure if the right decision had been made. Regardless, their bond had deepened with this visit, a connection that would one day serve them well.

For now, there was still time to enjoy themselves.

 _ **S M H S**_

It was a sunny day, though Jaune didn't really feel that heat on his face or see the golden light around him passing through Beacon's emerald towers to turn green. For the second time in just a few days, Jaune and all of his friends were together again, though unlike last time not a one of them was happy. The usually bubbly Nora was sniffling and clinging to Ren, who had a steely look on his face that fought back his own tears. Ruby and the rest of her team were silently standing nearby, Sora, Neptune, and Sun standing beside them. Jaune was happy they were there with him. He brought one of his suit's sleeves up to his face to wipe tears from his eyes. He lowered it after a few moments and his gaze remained locked on the face present on the remade statue in the middle of Beacon Academy's courtyard. The Huntsman and Huntress were still present, as well as the Grimm beneath their feet. The only change was in the features of the woman. Her face was thinner than it had once been, and her outfit was far different. Gone was the hood the woman had worn, replaced by a familiar armor set complete with similarly fashioned sword and shield. Long hair hung in a pony tail with a small tiara resting atop her head. She had a kind, but nearly imperceptible smile. Pyrrha Nikos had no remains, save the armor melted down to create Jaune's own, so this was the closest thing she had to a grave besides the headstone present in her family's plot in Mistral. Jaune preferred this one, however. It felt closer to Pyrrha.

The Keyblade wielder's fists clenched in his pocket as he thought back to Pyrrha. The Vytal festival, which now seemed like a thousand years ago, ran through his mind again. But then other moments did as well. Training with her was a common one, and how she had saved his life was another. How she stood there, at the base of the tree, never even considering the possibility of mocking his inexperience. That moment described her personality rather well – going out of her way to help someone who couldn't do anything for her like it was no big deal.

He was silent, waiting to say what he really wanted until he was alone. Now was all of them remembering Pyrrha, and something in him wanted to let that remain. That group silence meant a lot to him, like they were listening for her. Like she was still there and talking to them. One by one, however, they started to trickle away with just a few words of goodbye. "I wish I could've met you, Pyrrha. Really met you, in this world. You seemed like a great friend," Sora said quietly, looking up at the statue with his hand clasped in Ruby's.

The silver eyed girl nodded sadly. "I'm sorry I didn't get there fast enough, Pyrrha," she muttered, tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffled and her grip on Sora's hand tightened. "I know you wouldn't want us to think like that, but I can't help it. I wonder what it would be like if I'd saved you, or if you'd won that fight. No matter what... I'm going to do the best I can to make sure nothing like that happens again."

She hugged Sora tight before walking over to Jaune. "We have to go, Jaune. Headmaster Goodwitch wants to talk about the school year and Sora needs to talk with Professor Ozpin. But if you need us, Doctor Polendena is installing a cross world communicator in the Gummi Ship!"

Jaune grunted an affirmative without looking away from the statue.

Blake and Sun left next, mentioning a lead with the White Fang they couldn't fall behind on. Something about a pair of Fennec Fox Faunus trying to kill Blake's parents – the original founders of the White Fang, she revealed. Pacifists, too. Weiss and Neptune weren't far behind, mentioning that they'd gotten a call about some monster that had been in Blue Fairy and needed to be hunted down. Yang asked her to find everything they could on Sephiroth and Cloud before they left and they promised to send her what they could find.

Nora and Ren were the last ones to leave. Ren was silent, as usual, and was saying what he felt needed to be said within his mind. Nora had told Pyrrha a story about what they were doing recently, forcing through her tears about when they'd taken a day to go meet her family. It made Jaune feel guilty he couldn't introduce himself. He was persona non grata across most of Remnant, given his trial. They didn't want to admit that they'd lost him, but they would gladly lock him up again if they found him. Sora and Ozpin helped schedule moments for him to be on Remnant, but for the most part that was only in Vale and the less inhabited parts of the other Kingdoms.

Eventually, those two left as well. "It was great to see you, Jaune!" Nora shouted, launching into a hug.

Ren nodded. "I hope it is not another five months before we meet again, Team Leader."

"Definitely not," he agreed with a smile. He hugged them both back and waved them off.

Yang watched them go, then turned back and took a step or two away. She needed to stay nearby, but it was only right to give Jaune as much privacy and space as she could before they headed back to the ship. Jaune took the step for what it was and began speaking. "Hey, Pyrrha. I – I'm sorry it's been so long. I've been helping people. Like I always wanted to. Can you believe it? I'm actually a hero. A real hero!" He scoffed and shook his head. "I owe it all to you. You – You taught me how to fight, how to be brave. I'm just sorry that it took me so long to actually do it. You – I mean, you showed me how to be a great person, but I wasn't. I hurt people. But I'm going to do the right thing from now on. I'll make you proud."

Jaune laughed nervously. "There's another me out there. He really wants to see you again so he's asked us – oh, right... I forgot to tell you. Yang and me, we're partners now. I'm helping her look for her mom and we've got all these friends out there now. She's been great." Yang smiled at that, flattered he thought highly of her like that. He kept speaking, "But, um, where was I? OJ – that's what we're calling the other me – he's just like me. He misses you and – we're going to help him find another version of you. Move on, you know, get a happy ending."

He sighed. "When you left my Heart – when you saved me from Salem, I mean. You, uh, you told me to find love again. I don't think I'm ready yet. Really, I'm not. I will be one day, when I've started feeling like that for someone else again. Maybe it'll be soon. Maybe it'll be years. I don't know. But you asked me to, so I will. But I'll always love you, Pyrrha. No matter what."

He turned back to Yang. "I'm ready to go," he said.

"Kay," Yang muttered. She cast a look up at the statue. _I'll keep an eye on him for you, Pyrrha. Won't let anything happen to him._ She looked back down. "Let's go."

She wrapped her arm around Jaune's shoulders and began to walk with him. "That was pretty nice, Jaune."

"Thanks, Yang," Jaune said, letting her give him a side hug.

The two turned on their heels when a noise familiar to the both of them erupted from behind. Keyblade and Ember Celica both were pointed at the portal of Darkness that had appeared, their wielders ready to destroy whatever came through.

Someone walked through and cast a look in their direction. "Hey, I -" His hands flew up. "Whoa! It's just me!"

They both lowered their weapons and stared at the newcomer. "Oh, OJ!" Jaune shouted. He dismissed his weapon and ran up. "How are you?"

"I'm not bad," OJ said, grinning and high fiving Jaune. His grin disappeared as he looked up at Pyrrha's statue.

"How did you get here through a Corridor of Darkness?" Yang asked, brow furrowed. Her weapon remained lowered, but the wariness in her voice was evident.

To be fair, it had surprised Jaune as well. "Um... that's a question."

good

OJ blinked and looked between them. "What? Y-you don't trust me just because I use the Darkness?" He shook his head and let out a hearty laugh.

Both Yang and Jaune were off put by this. "Uh... what?"

"It's just... Oh, guys? Have you ever actually listened to Sora?" OJ asked, his laughter slowing. He put his hands in his pockets and shook his head in disappointment. "Darkness isn't _bad_. Light's not _good_. They're forces of nature, you know that. They just _are_. Salem used the light, after all. And, I mean... Sora said his old friend Riku used Darkness. And Blake! Blake uses the Darkness and she's not evil. Yang, you'll vouch for your old partner not being evil, right?"

Yang shrugged. "Obviously," she said. She bit her cheek before sighing. "Okay, you've got a point. Using the Darkness doesn't make you evil. And you're Jaune. You wouldn't be evil."

"Yeah," OJ agreed. He looked over at Jaune. "So you shouldn't be scared of it. Just keep it under control like you've been doing and you'll get even stronger!"

"I – what?" Jaune asked, eyes wide. "I've been using the Darkness?"

"Yeah! And the Light. How did you think you cast that Dual Spell?" OJ asked, confused by his counterpart's ignorance. He frowned. "The Blizzareflect? Your Heart cast a spell using your Light and one using your Darkness."

Awed by his mirror image, Jaune asked, "How do you know so much about this?"

"Well, I think my sense of Darkness is a bit better than yours. I can... 'smell' it, you know? I smelled some coming from you when you did it."

"You've been following us?" Yang asked, forcing her hostility down.

OJ nodded. "Yeah. I wanted to tell you what I found out – where all of the items on my list are!"

Jaune grinned. "Well lay it on us!"

OJ began to list places. "Okay, so the Hogyoku. We know that Aizen has that one. Then there's a world called Aincrad. It has something called a 'World Seed.' I haven't found it yet, but I know it's there. Then there's Gaia, with an ingot of Darkness called Black Materia. And that world of animals you guys were on – whatever's happening there, I think it has to do with whatever it is that can create Darkness in a Heart. I don't know what it is, but Heartless don't work that fast."

Yang blinked. "Those are all the places we've been..." she muttered, dumbfounded. "What are the odds?"

Jaune grinned. "The odds are great! We've been following our Hearts where they want us to go! We must be destined to help OJ!" he shouted exuberantly to the blonde brawler. "You see?"

"Y-yeah," Yang said, flashing Jaune an unsure smile. All the world's they had already been to? It felt too clean for it to be about helping just OJ. "But I just think something else is going on."

"Maybe someone else is after them, too," OJ suggested. He gestured at the both of them. "If you want a suggestion of where to start, I'd go with that Aincrad place. When I left, they looked to be gearing up for something big. Maybe they need your help?"

"We'll head there first," Yang agreed. She stared at OJ for a while, a look that was returned with equal intensity. "You came here for another reason?"

OJ laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head before turning to stare up at the statue. "You got me. I just thought I'd talk to her, you know? Even if it's not the same Pyrrha, I mean, she'd want to hear from me, right?"

"I know she would," Jaune answered solemnly. He stared at the statue, too. "Have you seen Mom and Dad?"

"... No." OJ turned back to Jaune and shook his head. "I don't think that I will, either. It just... it doesn't feel right, you know? I know that you made up with Mom and Dad. I'm happy for you, really, but – I didn't. And I don't want to deal with that more than once. When it's time to meet my parents again, I'll do it. But only when it's the last time I need to."

"They'd love to meet you. You're me – you're their son," Jaune implored, taking a step towards OJ.

"No," OJ said pointedly, ending the conversation and Jaune's approach. He clenched his fist and turned back to the statue. "Look, I've lost too many people, guys. I'm not willing to meet my parents just for a chance to abandon them. I'm waiting until I don't have to lose anyone else."

"You're going to lose us," Yang pointed out simply.

OJ nodded sadly, but didn't turn to her. "Yeah, I know. I wouldn't have even bothered you if I didn't need your help." He walked up to the statue and slowly, hesitantly, reached out to touch the stone. "Leaving you all behind is bad enough. Because I'd have to leave. Getting to Pyrrha matters more than... anything in this universe."

OJ looked back at Jaune again and extended his hand. "You're right, though. We're the same. Which means you feel the same way that I do. There's got to be more than one Pyrrha out there waiting for a knight in shining armor." He stared at Jaune, who was growing increasingly uncomfortable. "Hey, just think about it. A world where you never helped Salem. A world where Pyrrha is just... waiting for you."

Jaune immediately felt a growing pit of temptation in his Heart. Leave? Just leave his friends and go find the woman he had loved? He felt like a tremendous jerk for just considering it, but... he just couldn't help it. "I..." He shut his mouth when nothing else came out.

"Like I said, Jaune. Just think about it." He lowered his hand back to his pocket and looked at Yang. "I haven't seen anything of your mom since that fight, Yang. And I want you to know that I really appreciate your help. I'm keeping an eye out for her. I'll try to let you guys know if I do, because, well, I get looking for someone beyond your grasp. I'll help her get whole, just like you're helping me."

Yang felt her features soften very obviously. "Oh... Heh. Thanks, O – Jaune."

OJ grinned at the sound of someone using his name again. "Hey, we were friends for a while, Yang. And if it'll get you to trust me – to help me – I'm glad to."

Yang stared at Jaune's alternate timeline counterpart for a while before looking down at the ground. That pit of distrust in her gut made her feel so guilty now. "Thank you," she finally repeated, uncharacteristically quiet. She held out her hand to OJ. He stared at it for a half second, before grinning and taking it for a handshake. "Jaune's right – you're a cool guy."

"Right back at ya," OJ said. He grimaced. "Except, I mean, you're a girl! A cool girl."

Yang looked directly at Jaune. "He's definitely a Jaune Arc."

"Hey!" both Keyblade Wielders shouted indignantly.

 _ **S M H S**_

Ozpin sipped at his coffee as he examined the theoretical piece on parallel timelines that was present in his other hand. With the grace of a man who had done this for countless years, he used his thumb to dextrously turn the page and read on quietly. Glynda was on the other side of an open line, having asked for his advice on multiple matters regarding Beacon and the Vale Council throughout the day until the both of them had decided to just leave the call on and wait until another question or topic was brought up. Besides, even if they were both silent, the company was a nice change of pace. Glynda was mostly alone for now, planning the Beacon Entrance Test for the year, finding out how to fit in Miss Rose's class to all schedules so that the current seniors would learn everything that the incoming freshman students would learn throughout their entire careers at Beacon. Ozpin was also alone, as Qrow was either working on mapping out the island or spending what he called 'quality time' with Winter Schnee. And without any students incoming, the plans that Ozpin and Sora had begun working on – mostly Ozpin, honestly – were little more than rather boring table dressing.

Which, coincidentally, was the reason that Ozpin had jumped at the opportunity to investigate how one would jump to a parallel time stream, combining his own knowledge of time travel and Darkness with the stories that Jaune had relayed to Sora and the items that this 'OJ' had claimed to need. So far, he had come to very few useful conclusions. One, perhaps, was intriguing enough. The items that OJ had described seemed to simulate the power of a **χ** -blade, creating Light and Darkness, balancing the forces, and strengthening them both. He honestly doubted that it would be nearly as strong as the weapon itself, but it was an incredibly dangerous group of items. Cataclysmically so if in the wrong hands. He flipped to the next page and continued reading.

"Ozpin," Glynda cut in. The former Headmaster lowered his book and looked towards the Scroll on the edge of his desk. He smiled softly, holding in a slight chuckle, as he saw the woman's once bunned hair now frazzled with loose strands sticking out in many directions.

"I will ask again, Glynda," Ozpin began as their eyes met, "when was the last time that you slept?"

"Too much to do," she replied before bringing her own highly caffeinated beverage up to her lips. "Besides, I'm not doing anything you didn't do."

"I was an immortal," Ozpin pointed out. He placed his own coffee – with less than half the caffeine he had relied on when overseeing Beacon and the world's defense from Salem – on the table. "My body repaired any damage that I did to it. You don't have that luxury."

"Then I'll stop next year," Glynda muttered dismissively. "There's too much to do with Beacon's reintroduction and setting up Magic lessons for Beacon's alumni." She let out a heavy sigh.

"Ah, yes... Your question?" Ozpin inquired. He softly placed his chin on his clasped hands and waited patiently.

The woman glanced up over her glasses' rims. "I just received a message from the Vale Council," she began explaining. She took another drink before setting it down and smoothing her hair back. "They are insisting on installing their own Huntsmen in the school. Apparently after the events of Beacon's Fall, they have decided we need more 'impartial oversight' than I alone cannot provide."

"Wording it like that makes refusing seem traitorous," Ozpin said, agreeing with the woman's thoughts on the matter. "They have always been more interested in interfering than actually helping, however. Hm... You may just have to accept this, Glynda. I can give you the names of a few Huntsmen that they would agree to have on staff as this 'oversight' who would be less interested in actually interfering as much as keeping guard."

"That would be useful," Glynda agreed. She sighed and removed her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Ozpin, why did you trust me with this?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow in confusion and lowered his hands to the table. "What do you mean?" he asked in surprise. "Who else would I have picked?"

"Why didn't you stay?" she clarified. She gestured at him. "There was so much to do, and the world needed someone it could respect at the helm. The world needed you."

"As I had said, a thousand years at the helm was more than enough. Sora needed me... and you will not only be enough, Glynda, you will excel," Ozpin said comfortingly. "You always have. Besides, you helped me run that school for years, Glynda. And you can lean on Peter and Bartholomew. Even Miss Rose is more than prepared for more responsibility. You are more than prepared to run that school yourself, but you do not need to do it by yourself. I believe Sora would say something along the lines of... 'your friends are your power?'"

Glynda laughed, though that quickly turned to a yawn. "I suppose that is the case," she agreed. "I am simply used to being the one relied upon, not the one who must rely."

"A lesson we must all learn as we grow." Ozpin smiled sadly and leaned back as he thought of that moment for him, when Salem had faked her own kidnapping by the Heartless and he became a leader in his own right. "A difficult one for some, but you were a much faster learner than I."

Glynda accepted the compliment with a smile, but soon sighed and shook her head, saying, "With so much to do, I just keep worrying I'm burning the candle at both ends, Ozpin. Soon there will be nothing left."

"Yes, well..." Ozpin frowned and stood up suddenly, running to the bookshelf and searching while a pit of fear grew heavier and heavier in his soul.

"Ozpin? Ozpin! Oz, what is it!?" Glynda inquired as the sound of books being tossed to the ground. The gray haired man sprinted back to the desk and slammed a study back on the desk, flipping madly through it. "Ozpin, please."

"What you said just reminded me of something, Glynda," Ozpin explained as he continued flipping through the pages and scanning their contents. He continued like that for a few seconds before finding what he was looking for and slamming the study flat. "I read it a few days ago after Sora called me from Vacuo about this OJ. The story goes that his world was exterminated by Salem, fading away completely into the Darkness. Now, from what I've found, the scientists of Schnee Corporation have found that the most easily punctured walls of the universe are present in regions of the universe filled with Dark Matter. Now, the universe is full of Dark Matter, but it has an incredibly high density in the Realm of Darkness. Extrapolating this, we can determine that the weakest point, when opened, will punch a hole into a location of similar density in the next universe. Since this world was the only one that existed at that time and Beacon had been purified by Light, and OJ was the only Light left in his world, he appeared at Beacon Academy when he crossed over.

"This means," he paused and sighed. "This means the universe would be linked entirely to two Realms of Darkness."

"And how does my comment relate to this?" Glynda inquired.

Ozpin glanced at her. "Imagine the Realm of Darkness as a vacuum. If you place two vacuums on either side of an otherwise airtight, but fragile container, what will happen?"

Glynda froze. "Our universe would be ripped apart from the opposing forces as the two Realms of Darkness dragged everything towards themselves."

Ozpin nodded. "Our entire universe would be turned to less than Light or Darkness – pure Nothingness as matter was gripped between two black holes and shredded. Nothing could save even one of the worlds that exists – not the Light in children's Hearts, not a Keyblade wielder. It would simply... cease to be."

"You do not think..." Glynda began quietly, unsure if she could even believe it herself. She swallowed her fear. "This other version of Jaune Arc. At his core, he has to be at least similar to the boy himself. He wouldn't know, would he?"

Ozpin considered everything silently. Was it possible that this other version of Mister Arc was not only aware of the possibility, but more than comfortable with following through with it? He suddenly felt guilty for considering the possibility and shook his head. Despite the horrors that this version of the young warrior had survived, he was Mister Arc at the core. Jaune had refused such tactics upon coming to his senses. If this Jaune had really fought against Salem as he said, refusing to go through such evils as destroying his world in an attempt to regain Miss Nikos' companionship, then Ozpin doubted the boy would be willing to do it now. That meant that the boy did not know... he hoped. "No. For now, I am unwilling to believe that, Glynda," Ozpin replied finally. "OJ was trained as a Huntsman by Beacon Academy. He fought against Salem. I believe it is more likely he does not know."

"Then we must simply send communications to Mister Arc and Miss Xiao Long," Glynda stated.

Ozpin nodded in agreement. "Yes, that seems like the best course of action. I will try to send communications now, Glynda." He stood up and ran a tired hand through his hair. "Hopefully that will be enough to inform OJ that he has to stop searching. That these items must be scattered to the farthest ends of the World or destroyed if possible."

"Then I will leave you to that, Ozpin. Thank you for helping me, " Glynda said. She was quiet for a moment. "If it becomes too much for you then please ask me for help. I am here for you, too."

Ozpin stared at the woman. "Thank you Glynda. You are an excellent friend. Better than I deserve," he stated simply. "Goodbye."

She smiled. "Goodbye." Then the line cut off.

He smiled, then ran off to the communications room outfitted with the new inter-world communications Scroll. Despite his optimism... the pit of worry in his gut just wouldn't abate. He hoped nothing bad was about to happen.

 _ **S M H S**_

"Em?"

"Yeah, Merc?"

"What do you think a... 'Sheeptar the Sheep King' actually looks like?" the gray haired boy asked while he checked the straps of his gun boots. They seemed tight enough when he did, so he stood up and began to stretch while looking over at his partner.

Emerald was currently in the process of checking her twin sickle-guns for ammo, though the rules of this world seemed to imply that guns were not allowed. Magic seemed... rare, but acceptable. Apparently a pair of dumb but well meaning blondes had shown up on this world forever ago and helped the players on the front lines beat the first floor. Most people, after that fight, assumed magic had been added in following Kayaba's message to the players. Still, checking her guns was part of her pre-battle ritual. It made her feel safe.

"Sheeptar?" Emerald asked, thoughtfully spinning her sickles at both sides and looking at the sky. "A fluffy Xenomorph? From that Journey Weaver movie?"

"That sounds... ew," Merc muttered, a shiver running down his back at the idea of the creepy alien covered in light, pink fluff. "Why'd you put that idea in my head, Em?"

Emerald stopped spinning her weapons and gave him a pointed glare. "You asked!"

"... So?" he asked, mock innocence in his voice. He spun around and did a kick, leaving his heel an inch away from Em's face. She didn't flinch. "You think it'll try to eat our brains?"

She smacked his foot down and glared at him through half lidded, incredibly unamused eyes. "If it does, you'll be safe."

"Ouch," Mercury said as he got close. He crossed his arms. "You're so cruel."

"You know you want me," Emerald replied, a wry smirk on her face.

Mercury took a surprised step back. "Wha –? Em, that's my line!"

"Oh, it is?" she asked, the smirk never leaving her face. "What are you going to do about it?"

Merc narrowed his eyes at her. "Since when did you get flirty instead of mean?"

"Since when would that bother you?" Emerald retorted.

Merc shrugged. "I guess you're right." He held out his hand to her and placed the other over his heart. "Now you're ready to show your love for me!"

Emerald cringed. "Ew..." she said as cruelly as she could manage.

"To quote you quoting me, 'You know you want me.'"

"I should have known not to try to play this game with you," Emerald muttered, annoyed. She sheathed her weapons and cast a glance around before rubbing the lamp and allowing the blue smoke to explode out of it.

"YRRRREAGH!" Genie yawned obnoxiously while he stretched and came out into the world again. He stopped and glanced between the two warriors. "Oh, hey Al. Silver the Hedgehog."

"Blue," Mercury muttered coolly in reply.

The Genie of the Lamp grinned at the warrior. "You enjoying that Schnee-S-Schnee?"

"You tricked me..." Mercury said, gesturing with a threatening finger at the Genie. "We didn't even know you existed when I made that wish!"

"Sorry, Silver. Don't make the rules, I just create impossible wishes with my cosmic power," Genie said. He looked down at Emerald. "And since I'm out, I guess that means you want a wish?"

Emerald glanced down. "No, I – I don't know." She glanced away from the Genie and shook her head. "I guess I just thought it had been a while since you'd been out, you know? And it might be a long time until we can let you out again, okay? Just, so, get a stretch or something."

Mercury raised an eyebrow. "You want to do that? He draws attention, you know." He leaned against the wall and stared directly at her.

"There's no one here," Emerald dismissed his worries.

"You just wanted to give me some time?" Genie asked, staring at Emerald. He grinned and looped behind Emerald to hug both her and her partner. "Ah, Al, I knew you were getting back to your old self!"

"My old self?" Emerald repeated dryly.

Mercury shook his head and separated himself. "I'll never understand your insistence on that, Blue," the assassin said simply. "You know we aren't anybody you used to know."

"Well, give the boy a prize! He's right!" Genie shouted, his body changing shapes into an old man in a suit, his tail a microphone in his hand. He shifted back. "I don't recognize _you_."

Mercury's face soured. "You see, you sounded happy about that."

"Did I?" Genie responded innocently. He shrugged and turned to Emerald again and met her glare. "Oh, I'm kidding, Al. Silver's fine. Still, it's really gracious of you to put up with him!"

"Yeah. It is," Emerald say with a glare at her friend.

Genie sighed. "Well, not everyone can be like Jas -"

"Hey, are you two lovebirds ready in there?" came a voice, immediately followed by a knock on the door to the room. The door knob began to turn and the door open.

"Gah!" Emerald and Mercury shouted in surprise, stumbling over one another in an attempt to reach the door and keep it from being opened.

"See ya, Al! Silver!" And the Genie disappeared.

"I – Ugh... What, you two idiots couldn't lock the door?" Kirito asked from the doorway.

Mercury, hands holding his body above Emerald with her legs outside of his, chuckled. "Um... how?"

Kirito felt a massive shadow overcome him. "What is it with idiots being completely unable to open the menu!? It's child's play – literally!" He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. "God, and I thought Dumb and Dumber were bad. They at least weren't constantly tripping over each other looking for an excuse like you two are."

"You got me!" Mercury responded before leaning down, puckering his lips.

"Asshole!" Emerald snapped, bringing her head up to slam into the bridge of his nose. He yelped and stumbled backwards to crash onto his back, yelping in pain the entire time. Emerald pushed herself to her knees and rubbed the place where her forehead had met his nose.

"Great, if I wanted to deal with a textbook Tsundere relationship I'd go hang around that psychopath with the rapier," Kirito grunted. He turned around and shook his head. "Sweet Merciful Buddha, how am I missing Dumb and Dumber now?" He turned his eyes back to them. "Don't do this on the battlefield, okay? I don't want to die because you aren't watching my back." Then he left and continued to shake his head, muttering about _'Maybe I should try to power level my alchemy skill before the raid tonight. Yeah, that might be fun...'_

"What was that for!?" Mercury snapped, sitting up to glare Emerald in the eyes. He was clutching at his nose, angered by the pain.

"Trying to kiss me, idiot," Emerald hissed. She pushed herself to her feet and glared directly at him.

"I wasn't gonna!" Mercury whined. His hand left his uninjured nose. "It was a joke!"

"Some joke!"

"Ugh..." Mercury pushed himself up to his feet, Emerald following close behind. "I just mean you didn't have to attack me! Say stop and I will..."

"Really?" Emerald asked dryly. "I tell you to stop flirting with me all the time."

Mercury stared her in the eyes. "You do it right back and you smile whenever I do it."

Emerald sighed, forced to admit that it was true. "I know." She turned around and placed her hand on the doorframe. The green crystal above her head shined with a sad light, the emerald reflecting Emerald herself in Mercury's eyes. She spoke up soon, saying, "We need to get going, don't we?"

Merc nodded and ran up, looping his arm around her shoulder. Suddenly much more chipper, he shouted, "Of course! We'll show that girl-voiced whiner what this power couple can do! Who knows? Maybe we'll even scratch your new itch of saving other lives?"

Emerald scoffed. "Yeah!" she agreed. The two then sprinted off, neither fully aware that they were excited to fully try their hands at being heroes for once. "Sheeptar the Sheep King, your reign is at an end!"

 _ **S M H S**_

OJ was currently sprinting down a long hallway, shadows swirling through the dirt hallway behind him. "How dare a pathetic human like you steal from Father!?" the angry voice of a prideful child snapped, somehow sounding like it was part of the shadows themselves. Angry eyes with wine red irises and gnashing, sharp teeth appeared in the shadows closest to OJ, biting at his heels and trying to tear him apart.

"To be fair, if he wanted the book to not be stolen, he shouldn't have just left it out on that table!" OJ called over his shoulder. His grip on the book under his left arm tightened and he pumped his arms harder when his reply led to a spike of Darkness slamming into the stone beneath his feet.

"Return the book or suffer death, Human!" the voice snapped.

OJ laughed and shook his head. "Oh come on! I've met enough monsters to know you'll kill me anyways!" he laughed at the voice. He kept running, though, and eventually was forced to stop when he nearly ran face first into a man wearing a fur-lined vest. His hair was pitch black and spiked up, leaving his wine red eyes and the nasty grin on his face clearly visible. It made him look evil. Evil and Hungry.

"Hey, what are those cool clothes? Give 'em to me and maybe I'll let you live!"

"Greed..." the voice from the shadows said, a level of arrogant disgust evident. The movement behind OJ had ceased, the shadows retreating slightly. "I do not need your assistance."

"Well, Pops disagrees, Kiddo," the man replied. Greed, OJ told himself. The man cocked his head to the side, as if he could easily read the emotions on the shadows' "face." "Ah, don't be like that Pride. Father just told me to head over and cut him off. That said, I do want first dibs on him!"

Greed charged OJ, his skin turning sharp and charcoal until it covered his arms. Wicked claws glinting in the low light of the tunnel made their way towards OJ's throat. OJ jumped to the side, rolling across the ground as he barely dodged the attack. This Greed guy was _fast_. And, OJ noted, not human. "Hey, not bad, Kid. You might actually give me some fun!" Greed noted. He was standing with his claw where OJ's head had once been. Greed stood up slowly and readied his claws again. "Try to attack me back, too."

OJ pocketed the book. "Hey, if you keep attacking me, I might have to start fighting back," he warned. He placed his right hand in front of him and smirked. "And trust me, that wouldn't be good for you."

"Oh... then maybe we should actually have some fun!" Greed let his arms fall to his side, and the charcoal began to creep up his arms, down his chest, and eventually covered his face. His spiky hair disappeared and jagged teeth appeared in the bottom of his jaw.

"Greed, do you really think it will take that much effort?" Pride mocked.

Greed's new face grinned. "I hope so!" Then he dashed at OJ again.

"What, you got a makeover? Am I supposed to be scared?" the Keyblade wielder asked, simply dodging the swiping claws that came at him. He ducked beneath one attack and turned, lashing out with an Aura infused foot that could crush bone. He was very surprised when nothing happened.

"A makeover? Well, Greed the Avaricious is quite the looker no matter what form he takes," Greed said of himself. He looked down at the foot on his abdomen. "You know, nothing can break it, but I almost felt that through my Ultimate Shield, kid. You aren't a normal human, are you?"

OJ blinked. "Uh..?" He yelped when Greed's claw suddenly came up and sent him flying back towards Pride. OJ spun and placed his feet on the ceiling, jumping to the ground before Pride could skewer him.

The Keyblade Wielder groaned and placed a hand on his face, surprised when they came off with a little blood. He could feel the scratches healing, his Aura going into overtime to sew his wounds shut. "Okay. An Ultimate Shield? I knew a girl once with an impregnable defense." He held his right hand out to his side, and the shadows and energy congealed around it until the Keyblade was dragged from wherever it rested so it could appear in OJ's fist. OJ's face grew somber. "The problem with thinking you're impregnable? Someone always comes along who can pregnate it." OJ frowned and a blush came to his cheeks when Greed began to snicker. "Er! I mean, who can break through it! I mean break through it! Ah, screw it!" He dashed forward and raised the Keyblade above his right shoulder.

"Impregnable isn't a bad word for the shield, Kid!" Greed snapped. He raised his arm to take the blow. "You won't get through i- Agh!" Greed shouted in pain and stumbled backwards. The Keyblade slamming against his arm had not managed to pierce the Ultimate Shield, but Greed definitely knew that the bone in his forearm had shattered upon impact. He grasped at it and glared at OJ. "How did you –?" He was cut off when another Keyblade slash came up at his jaw and nearly shattered it. He threw himself away from OJ and retracted the Ultimate Shield around his arm to heal the bone before he reformed it.

"Impregnable isn't something anyone can have. Human or whatever you are, there's always a key to killing you," He raised his Keyblade again and twirled it at his side before spinning his own body and slashing at the monster's throat again. The creature hissed and dodged the attack before slashing upward at OJ's chin. The warrior sidestepped the attack and brought the pommel of his Keyblade down on the monster's wrist, shattering it before he turned and jammed the teeth of the Keyblade into Greed's chest, the energy of his Aura covering the blade as he focused all of his strength into the blow. The monster flew back and slammed into the wall of the tunnel, hissing in pain. OJ frowned in surprise when he saw Greed force the shield to recede from his chest. A river of red leaked out, making it apparent that the attack had caused a pool of blood to appear 'beneath' the shield. A long red gash was being sewed shut by large, arcing blades of red lightning.

"How did you cut him?" the child's voice growled. OJ froze momentarily as a thin blade of Darkness appeared in front of his throat.

OJ jumped backwards and summoned up a Reflect wall to protect him from the other toothy attacks, using the force to rebound and attack Greed again. How _had_ he managed to hurt Greed? When a blade of Darkness nearly slashed through his side, he decided the question could wait. He needed to focus. He looped the Keyblade's teeth around the Darkness and contorted his body around to avoid Greed's claws. "Little shit! Cutting me open!" Greed snapped. He turned on his heel and attacked with his left elbow.

OJ turned and blocked the attack with the flat of the Keyblade, then used the point of contact to spin around slash his Keyblade across Greed's right hand. He charged it with Aura again, wondering if that was why the last attack had so easily sliced through the monster's Ultimate Shield. It turned out to be the reason exactly, with the Keyblade's edge burning an even deeper black as it passed through Greed's arm like a hot knife through butter.

Greed shrieked out in pain and fell to his knees. "WHAT THE HELL!?" he screamed, clutching at his left hand, still connected to his arm. He screamed again and let the Shield disappear from his hand, and suddenly the hand fell from his arm and slammed into the ground, leaving only the bleeding stump of his right arm even while the scarlet energy began to recreate the lost flesh. "What kind of human can cut through my Shield!? I-It's the blade, isn't it? Give it to me!"

OJ moved past one of Pride's attacks and summoned a ball of Darkness to his hands. "No." He tossed the ball at Pride and rolled to his back, dodging a wild haymaker from Greed's claws. The sphere exploded between the two monsters, magical energies shredding Pride but bouncing uselessly off of Greed's skin. The Keyblade wielder used his momentum to swing back up to his feet and charge the Keyblade with his Aura again, already suspecting exactly what was going on. The tip of the weapon turned black and fazed beneath the Shield and into Greed's torso. "I will give you this though. Fire."

Greed's eyes widened as he exploded from the inside out. The Shield retained his form, if only for a moment, before it faded away to reveal that his body was ash. "FIRE!" OJ shouted again, with the attack this time launched towards the center of Pride's mass. The flames exploded in the center of the creature and it shrieked in pain as entire swaths of its body disappeared completely. Now, OJ had a chance to run with no one to attack him. And he was going to take it.

"I'd say it's been fun, but..." OJ shrugged. "Bye!" OJ turned on his heel and waved his arm, creating a rift of Darkness between worlds that he quickly sprinted through. He hoped this book on 'The Doorway of Truth' might be able to show him how to enter the Realm of Darkness. If he was lucky, he only had to wait for Jaune and Yang to find the other pieces and he'd be on his way to see Pyrrha any day now!


	14. Dark Ghosts

**AN: Wow, this one's more than 2000 words longer than usual! That's one reason it took so long, and another is that the site's doc submission wouldn't work for a few days after I had finished this. So, how is everybody? Enjoying yourselves? How about that SuperBowl? Jeez, I was rooting for the Pats but that was easily the best SuperBowl in years! Two actually good teams playing their best!**

 **Anyways, time to do some responses!**

 **To Gamelover41592: I'm glad you liked Jaune's sisters! Also, Genie will show up in this chapter at the end again. It'll be a more serious moment, so less of his shape shifting and jokes and more of his 'during the fight with Jafar' attitude from the movie.**

 **To GuestWithIdeas: Yeah, don't worry. OJ isn't going after Truth, it's more like... It's a door to other places. He wants to know if anything about Truth can help him figure out how to get to the Realm of Darkness more than anything else. He knows bringing someone back to life is stupid, especially when it's someone else's Pyrrha that he'd bring back. And you're right about Yang and Jaune needing some help. They're already a bit beyond Ozpin's range to stop them, but everything will come to light eventually. And when it does, that's when the real story begins.**

 **Well, enjoy! I hope you like this chapter and that I do as well with SAO:Abridged as I did last time!**

 _ **Chapter 14: Dark Ghosts**_

"Aincrad sure has changed a lot," Jaune muttered as he and Yang walked down a dirt path towards the nearest town, staring up at the blue sky and over at the rolling green hills. Whereas last time they had visited, Aincrad had been a land ravaged, the buildings distinctly like those of the temple that they had once obtained chess pieces from for Beacon's induction ceremony, this land looked more like a small village area that was far more modern. It reminded Jaune of the farmland his family would vacation at in Mistral when he was young, calm and sleepy. Best of all, there were no Heartless around. He passed a white picket fence. "It's really nice, now."

"I'm bored..." Yang grumbled beside him, Ember Celica useless in its inactive state on her wrists. He glanced over and shook his head when he saw her drooping eyes and slumped shoulders. "Boooooooooooooooooorrrring..."

"Don't worry. OJ said they're planning something big, right? Then we'll get a chance to punch some monsters," Jaune said in an effort to brighten the woman's mood. "Maybe we'll even get to do something else crazy, like chase someone across a rooftop!"

Yang straightened up slightly. "Well... Okay. You're right! We always get in fights when we go anywhere!" she said, growing taller and more excited with every word. She pumped her fist above her and grinned. "And maybe we'll even get to see Kirito and Asuna again!"

Jaune grimaced. "Ugh... Please no," he muttered sadly. He rubbed the bridge of his nose as they continued to walk. "If we run into him again we'll just get called 'Dumb and Dumber' and he'll act like a jerk the entire time. Can't we just hope we never see him ever again?"

"Apparently not." Yang let her fist fall and one finger point out into the field. Jaune groaned and followed her finger, catching sight of the black coat before he heard the high pitched, evil giggling of Kirito. Jaune groaned and walked up first, deciding it would be best to get this over with.

"Kirito," he grumbled in greeting.

"AH! I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!" Kirito snapped, his hand shooting up from the ground, a marker flying from his grasp and soaring through the air. Jaune watched it go for a moment before looking down at what Kirito had been drawing on. "Dumber? What are you doing here?"

"Is that... Asuna?" Jaune asked, examining the sleeping young woman drooling in the grass. She had a large black circled colored around one eye. Kirito had been in then process of finishing up six whiskers on her cheeks when Jaune had interrupted and caused the line to move jagged and unevenly up her temple.

"I missed your idiotic jokes, Dumber," Kirito noted. He stood up straight and rolled his eyes at Jaune. "So, did you show up after more than a year just to ask stupid questions?"

"Mainly," Yang said, moving up to stand beside Jaune. She looked down at Asuna and grinned, shooting a robotic thumbs up towards Kirito. "Classic."

"Right? Sup, Dumb?" he asked, waving.

"Nothing much, Ladyboy," Yang retorted with a grin.

"Are you making fun of my voice..?" Kirito growled.

Yang smirked. "Am I?"

Kirito opened his mouth to yell, but deflated. "There's no way for me to answer that and win, is there?" he asked sullenly.

Jaune shook his head. "That's how she fights," he said, downtrodden. He walked over to the low stone wall and sat atop it. "Overwhelming, unstoppable force."

"That's me!" Yang said with a grin. She plopped down next to Jaune and threw her arm around his shoulders.

Kirito rolled his eyes and sat down on Jaune's other side, looking the opposite direction of the others. "You know, I was happy you two weren't around."

"I'm sure," Jaune said honestly.

"I'm sure," Yang said sarcastically.

Kirito shook his head. "You're both somehow _worse_ than I remember," he muttered, severely disappointed. He couldn't help a small smile growing on his face, though. "Still, at least now there are four players total that aren't worthless in this game."

"I count five. Weird." The group turned to look at the newcomers, and their appearance surprised Yang and Jaune. Mercury and Emerald were walking towards them, the gray haired young man sneering at Kirito. He stopped when he recognized Jaune and Yang. "Uh – Hey, Blondies."

"Mercury and Emerald?" Yang asked in disbelief. She placed her hands behind her head, a stance their entire group had absorbed from being around Sora, and grinned. "What are the odds?"

"Pretty low. All those – er, levels and we just happen to run into each other after so little time?" Emerald admitted. She looked over at Kirito. "But you! – _You_ we should've seen this morning!"

"Wh – Oh, the boss raid!" Kirito snapped his fingers as it came to him. "Yeah, I power leveled my alchemy by eating some weird mushrooms after I walked in on you two all..." Kirito made overly-graphic kissing noises. "Oh, Edgelord, Oh, Greenie!"

"Ew," Yang noted simply. She looked over at Emerald and Mercury. "You two couldn't lock the door?"

"You did shrooms instead of showing up!?" Mercury snapped, advancing on Kirito. He shoved the black haired warrior off of the stone wall. Kirito yelped as he toppled and slammed into the grass. Mercury opened his mouth to shout again before shutting it and thinking his words through again. He spoke much calmer, now. "Five more people died, you asshole."

"And me alone could have saved them?" Kirito asked dryly from the ground. He stood up and brushed his arms off. "If people couldn't keep themselves safe without me there, they probably were stupid enough to do that whole 'group up and hit it till its dead' thing again."

Mercury's eyes widened and his face grew in rage he could not control. "You – Agh!" He snapped, leaping over the wall and tackling the swordsman to the ground, fist colliding with his face.

Jaune and Yang turned to Emerald, who was watching disinterestedly. She glanced between them and shrugged. "What do you want from me? The jerk deserves it."

"Probably true," Jaune pointed out when he cast his mind back to his last encounter with Kirito.

Yang shot him a glare but he simply shrugged in response. "Still," Yang said angrily, turning her eyes back to Emerald. "This jerk helped save our lives at least once. We owe him."

Emerald glanced over at Mercury and saw that the two were locked in a pitched battle for dominance, slamming fists into each other's faces in a way that – because of the nature of this world – didn't actually hurt anyone. "Ugh... fine." She walked over to the stone wall and leaned over. "Merc, could you let him go?"

By this point, Mercury had successfully placed the other warrior's foot behind his own head and yanking the opposite arm up to the leg. The gray haired fighter glanced down. "No." He started yanking harder and Kirito actually yelped in surprise and pain as his fingers touched his toes. "Imma kill him."

"Please don't," Jaune asked simply. He grit his teeth, not wanting to admit it, but he did anyways. "No one likes him, but he's... he's slightly less bad once you get to know him."

"Hey – OW!" Kirito started to protest, only to have his arm and leg yanked again.

Mercury sighed and looked over at Emerald again. After a moment of meeting her eyes, he let go of Kirito and took a step back. "Fine. There."

"Jerk..." Kirito muttered, rubbing his shoulder and grimacing at the speedy warrior.

"Wagh!" the group turned to look towards the source of the cry, and Emerald and Mercury immediately began laughing.

"Huh – I – What did you do!?" Asuna's eyes focused directly on Kirito, fire that was almost real flying from her eyes. She jumped to her feet and grabbed her sword. "Are they laughing at me because you took my clothes off?"

"You think I'm a creep!?" Kirito snapped defensively. "Who am I, a Hollywood producer? I just drew on your face because I thought it'd be funny and it was!" He pointed at her. "So funny!"

Asuna looked down at herself, noticing she still had her armor, then looked back up at Kirito. She glanced around and looked at Yang and Jaune. "Is that it?"

"I hate him, and I'll be the first to admit he only did what he said he did," Jaune said, waving his hand. "And to prove it to you, I have so much temptation to lie. If I did, you would kill him and I'd never see him again."

"It's so nice to have friends," Kirito muttered, tossing a dry glance towards the blonde. Jaune just shrugged nonchalantly, so he just turned back to Asuna. "Still, is that good enough for you? I'm not _that much_ of a lowlife?"

Mercury crossed his arms and looked away from Kirito. "I'm honestly surprised," Mercury mumbled.

Kirito's eye twitched and he glared at Mercury. "Wanna say that to my face, you ripoff of a Sonic OC?!"

"Oh, this is constructive..." Emerald sighed. She placed one hand over her eyes and shook her head. "So constructive."

Asuna sighed. "You know what? I'm hungry," she said. She sheathed her blade. "I'll treat everybody to a meal." Yang and Jaune flinched and felt a shiver of terror run down their spines at the hungry look in her eyes. "And you can tell me about that magic stuff..."

 _ **S M H S**_

"Ah, Restaurant. The finest cuisine in all of Aincrad," Kirito said, a mocking smirk on his face as he waited to get a rise out of Asuna. He tented his hands and leaned forward, the smirk growing ever wider as her annoyance became more obvious.

"Oh my God," she snapped, eyes shut and mouth covered to try and keep her words quiet enough no one else in the restaurant would hear her. It didn't work. "Are you _really_ going to complain about a free meal!?"

"Don't ruin this for us!" Jaune and Yang hissed at him, their fists clenching around their forks and knives as they awaited their food. Free food was immeasurably better than normal food, after all.

Emerald rolled her eyes, but had to admit she agreed with their sentiment. Other than simply trying to survive, she wasn't too proud to admit she was a thief for one reason. Free stuff is better than normal stuff, to her. "Complaining? Him? And here I thought he _never_ whined," she said. She leaned on the table and appreciated the angry snarl that Kirito had shot her.

"I'll give him something to whine about," Mercury hissed just as Kirito was about to snark back to Emerald.

The swordsman turned his attention instead to Mercury. "Oh, what is your problem? Someone make you shit pie, Hilly?"

"If that's what you call an idiot abandoning us and getting five more people killed!" Mercury growled, jamming his finger into Kirito's face as he did.

"Since when would he care?" Yang wondered aloud. She shook her head at the looks she received. "Well, Mercury's... got a low valuation of human life."

"Not 'low,'" Mercury disagreed, leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms. "I just disagree that some individuals should be called human. Specifically him. _Definitely_ him." His thumb gestured at Kirito. "Besides, it's gone up since... what you're referring to. I mean, I won't cry if someone dies, but..."

"So you do know each other," Asuna muttered. She leaned back in her seat and bit her cheek for a moment, pitiless eyes examining the four warriors who so obviously did not fit in on Aincrad. She put on a falsely cheery smile. "So, how do you two know Jaune and Yang? I'm sure that's a story we'd all want to hear!"

Kirito groaned and let his head slam into the table. "Do we have to?" He sat up again and glared at Asuna. "Really?"

"Shut up and let me listen!" Asuna snapped back, her hand snatching up her table knife. The metal blade glowed a bright orange for a moment just before she shot it forward.

"I'm sorry!" Kirito shrieked, throwing his hands up and shutting his eyes. He opened them a moment later to find that the knife was just a few centimeters from his eye.

"Be. Quiet," Asuna commanded in an overly saccharine voice. Kirito made a scared, screeching noise in the affirmative, though he didn't dare move until Asuna had taken the knife away from his face. She did after a few tense moments, immediately sitting down and and looking over at the others as if nothing had happened. "Well?"

Jaune felt his jaw lock up out of fear. Asuna was, to put it lightly, completely insane. Thankfully, Yang and Emerald decided to take this one for him and Mercury, who was still glaring almost physical daggers at Kirito. "We actually met at an exchange program at school. Mercury and I were with the sister school for the Blondes."

Kirito looked over at Emerald. "Wait, you guys are friends with each other in the real world?" he asked, somewhat deflated by this news. He shook his head and the cocky grin reappeared on his face. "What, you didn't want to make a guild made entirely of idiots?"

Jaune glared at Kirito, disappointment evident in his eyes. "Friends is a strong word," he said after a solid thirty seconds of glaring. He looked back at Emerald and Mercury and thought of what they'd done. "We actually tried to kill each other when we first met."

"You mean figuratively... right?" Kirito asked, his voice tinged with worry for his own safety.

"Duh!" Yang shouted, purposefully throwing her fist into Jaune's head as she shot her hands up. She looked over. "Whoops... clumsy me."

Kirito bought it. "I buy that," he said. "Dumb blonde, after all?"

"Be careful, or you'll never move on from having a girl's voice," Yang warned. Her eyes flared red as she suddenly understood Jaune's opinion on the swordsman.

Kirito gulped and his hands drifted defensively to his lap. "Why are all the women in my life terrifying?"

"But what exactly happened?" Asuna inquired, either oblivious or ignoring what was going on. "You haven't really told us how you guys know each other."

The four outworlders glanced at each other, all knowing that any reveal of who they really were was likely not a good idea. Especially to these two. "That's a boring story. Tell us how _you_ guys met Jaune and Yang!" Emerald suggested, immediately moving on to a different topic.

Asuna scoffed angrily. "But I want to know if –"

"Let me tell you a tale," Kirito interjected, more than happy to talk about his own version of his favorite topic – himself. Specifically, the powerful and amazing 'Kirito the Black Swordsman.' Ugh, Jaune had really only known him for a couple of days and already felt like he knew the dark haired kid too well. "Almost two years ago, Kayaba Akihiko created this death game. Many assumed that the monsters would be the greatest danger to players. That we would be killed by the works of a madman. But no... most of us were killed by something far worse."

"Oh, God..." Jaune mumbled, placing his hand over his face.

"The idiots that were trapped in the game were in fact the most dangerous part of the game!" Kirito crowed, capturing the angry attention of the entire restaurant. He shook his head, crossing his arms and grinning at the ground. "So many died by acting even dumber than I thought they could be. Standing in fire, attacking themselves. Having... um... auto-loot... Hm..." Kirito grew suddenly morose and his grin disappeared, replaced with pain. Jaune frowned sympathetically, remembering Kirito's moments of selflessness at the end of their last encounter. He looked up after a moment, cocky as ever. "I met those idiots and Asuna in the first boss fight. It pains me to say it, but – out of every player in this game – those three are the only ones I would trust to fight with me." He glanced at Asuna. "Even if they can't open the menu."

The knife started glowing again.

"We all killed the first floor boss _together_ ," Asuna said, pointedly glaring at the black coat that Kirito was wearing. "Even if you took all the benefits from it."

"Again, we didn't really want any," Jaune pointed out, only to earn another rage filled glare from Asuna for not backing her up. He flinched. "But, uh... he is leaving some things out."

"Like how he had no friends!" Yang said bluntly. She turned and grinned when she saw the waitress place the food in front of them. "Oh, yes..." She picked up her knife and fork again and began to tear into the food.

"Ugh... I'm reminded of Sora's eating suddenly," Jaun muttered, disgusted. "And Nora's..."

Kirito wiped from his face some food splashing from Yang's plate. "Dumb, you are disgusting."

"Who's Sora?" Asuna asked.

"Keyboy?" Mercury muttered. He shrugged. "One of their friends. He's... an idiot."

"A child," Emerald said at the same time.

"Powerful." Jaune.

"Going to get killed by me..." That one was Yang. She looked up at everyone's terrified faces. "He dates my little sister."

"Ah... logical," Kirito muttered before taking a bite of the food in front of him. He grunted. "Not bad... Not _good_ , but..." He grunted again.

"You ordered the most expensive thing on the menu on my dime and you're not going to even appreciate it!?" Asuna shrieked angrily. "At least _pretend_ to enjoy it!"

Kirito seemed to consider this for a moment before shrugging. "... No."

"Douchebag," Asuna muttered angrily.

Mercury nodded. "I second that."

"Are you okay?" Jaune asked.

Mercury's eyes flicked over to Emerald, almost too fast for Jaun to noice. "I'm -"

Their conversation was cut off by the sudden noise of a scream piercing the quiet of the town. "Oh, goddammit, I couldn't even finish my food!" Yang snapped as she surged to her feet. She motioned for one of the waitresses – Jaune briefly wondered if the NPC's of this world had Hearts or if they were artificial – and told her to keep the food safe. Then Yang grabbed Jaune's arm and yanked him out of his chair, sending the Keyblade wielder's fork and knife flying away.

"Wait, where are you –?" Mercury began, before noticing that, in fact, he was the _only_ person still at the table. "I – dammit, Em!" He stood up and sprinted after the others with an angry look on his face. "Leaving me behind!?"

He caught up quickly, owing the speed to his semblance. He was soon in the town square, just outside of the restaurant and filled with by a large group of people. The warrior caught sight of his paarty and jogged over. "Thanks for ditching me, Em," he growled at the green haired girl. She didn't respond, instead opting to stare upward with a stern look on her face. He looked around and saw that Jaune, Yang, and Asuna were all horrified. In fact, most people in the crowed were horrified by something. In fact, other than Emerald, only Kirito was seeminly unaffected. So Mercury followed their eyes.

A man was hanging from a clock tower, an ornate sword buried in his torso.

"Huh," Mercury muttered, more confused by the sight than anything else. "I thought people couldn't get hurt like this in a safe zone."

"That's right, Anderson Cooper. So this must be some sort of event, or a prank. You know, like someone screwing around with an NPC," Kirito said. Mercury immediately felt unending rage for having the same thought as Kirito.

"Who would do that?" Jaune wondered aloud. He sounded sick.

"I know, right?" Kirito asked. His next words lowered everyone's opinion of him. "I wish I'd thought of it."

"I don't believe you," Asuna muttered before turning and sprinting into the tower. "I'll cut him down. You guys keep an eye out for whoever might have done this!"

"Could it be the Heartless?" Jaune asked.

"Nah, they can't enter towns," Emerald muttered. She bit the inside of her cheek anxiously. This all felt... odd. She couldn't put her finger on it, but this whole thing felt like some kind of lie.

"They're safe havens from all monsters. Even those screwed up glitches can't kill people here," Kirito said. He looked around even as the man above continued to scream for help. " _Which is why_ I know this isn't a player dying. Kirito is Always Right Foundation is taking donations because I deserve pay for educating you idiots."

"But someone is dying! We can see it in front of us!" Jaune snapped at Kirito, fists clenched at his side. "God, how could I ever think you had a single heroic bone in your body?"

"Oh, I'm a hero. Of logic," Kirito retorted coolly. "Now, does someone have a thirty foot stick? I really want to take a whack at this pinata."

Jaune was very surprised when it wasn't his fist that slammed into Kirito's face. "Focus," Yang growled, having just knocked Kirito down. The diamond above her head was flickering orange for a moment before returning to green. "You're distracting everyone." She returned her attention to the crowd.

They didn't have much longer to look. As soon as Asuna made it up there, everything went wrong. "Don't worry!" the swordswoman called to the man hanging from the tower. "We'll get you down from there in a -" She was cut off by a more agonized scream than before and the man shattering into a thousand tiny shards of light. The sword flashed as its entire blade was hit by light before it spun and began to tumble towards the ground, landing tip first in the ground.

"Uh..."

"Quick, did anyone see any of the candy?!" Kirito mocked.

"A man just died, idiot!" Jaune growled, his stunned silence replaced with rage.

Kirito shook his head, stunned by what he believed was pure idiocy. "For the last time, Dumber, you _can't_ die in a safe zone! It's just impossible," he explained exasperatedly. "Though, please, do try. It should make for an entertaining sight to watch you swan dive off the clocktower."

"Not funny," Jaune snapped. Ugh, why did Kirito just annihilate any sort of emotional control Jaune had and replace it with hate. Might as well be a stupid test.

"Jesus, what did he do this time?!" Asuna cried when she reached the ground again. She looked around the group. "Anybody?"

"Excuse me..." a girl with purple hair muttered before walking up. She took a breath and said quickly, "My name is Yolko. I knew the man who just died."

Kirito cringed. He couldn't have been _wrong_ , could he? "Y-you mean NPC... right?" he asked hopefully.

"What? No! Caynz was my friend..."

"How's that Kirito's Always Right foundation going?" Emerald dryly asked. She tossed an annoyed glare at him.

"We, uh... We're going through a bit of a rough patch..." the swordsman admitted, even though it sounded like it broke him to do so.

"No duh," Jaune sighed. He was getting too angry – he knew Kirito was just doing this for the attention. He looked over at Yolko, who was staring at the ground with a dead look on her face. "So... what can you tell us?"

She looked up, purple hair fluttering. "I... I have a few ideas..." She sounded too scared to do this outside.

Yang walked over to the sword on the ground. She gingerly lifted the weapon and examined it. The blade was a deep black with protrusions that looked like a cross between wisping Darkness and the thorns of a rose. The handle was a dark, bloody red that made the black seem even darker. If these safe zones were really safe... then what in the hell kind of Darkness made it so this thing could kill someone in a safe zone?

"Come with us," Jaune finally said, motioning for everyone to follow. He looked over at Yang, who was still staring at the sword. "Yang!"

She looked up, then tucked the sword into her belt. "Yeah," she muttered before running off after the rest of the group, following Jaune into Restaurant.

"So..." Jaune began as they sat down at their table. Yang was picking at her food, very happy that it had been preserved as she had requested. "Anyone you can think of who would want to kill Caynz?"

Kirito, thankfully, kept his mouth shut for a while.

"Well... like I said, I do have an idea," Yolko said again. She placed her hands on the table and fidgeted uncomfortably. "You see... Caynz and I, we used be be part of a guild together. We were lead by a woman named Griselda and, well, it worked out pretty well for a while. Until, well, it fell apart."

"As guilds do," Kirito muttered, pained.

"Yeah, well, we all just kind of drifted apart once our guild leader died," she explained further. She looked down. "I don't know who did it, but... well, Griselda died under suspicious circumstances. I bet it has to do with that." She looked sadly at her hands, tightening them on the table. "I bet they'll come after me next!"

"Oh come on, you'll be safe. It's not like anybody can kill you in a..." Kirito considered what he was about to say, then let it out anyways, "safe... zone..."

"Smooth," Jaune sighed, eyes shut in disappointment.

"Oh, shut up," Kirito growled back. He looked over at Yang, specifically the sword on her hip. "Look, we'll put you up here for the night while we go investigate that sword, okay, Yoga Pants?"

The purple haired girl blinked in surprise. "Yoga p-?"

"Yolko," Jaune corrected.

Kirito just shrugged. "Regardless of your name, Yoga Pants, is that good with you?"

Yolko nodded passively. "Sure, I'll just... be here, if you have any more questions." She looked around distrustfully, as if afraid that someone was about to kill her. Which, Yang supposed, someone very well might do.

 _ **S M H S**_

"Hey, Tiff, you'll never guess who I ran into," Kirito said loudly as he barged into a store on another floor of Aincrad, the rest of the group following close behind.

A large, dark skinned man turned towards them from behind a counter. "Oh, if it isn't Kirito, my _least_ favorite customer," the man joked, holding his fist out to the swordsman.

"Ah, you're just saying that cause I'm too smart to buy any of your junk," Kirito retorted, grinning like he was actually friends with someone. Jaune felt surprised that Tiffany of all people was that person, given how they'd all parted ways on the first floor. Kirito's fist came up to bump against Tiffany's. "Hey, man."

"Wow, you're right! I never would've guessed who you had around," Tiffany noted as he saw Jaune and Yang enter, standing in front of Emerald, Mercury, and Asuna in the door's frame. "Wow, I haven't seen you two since all that business on the first floor, eh _fearless leader_." He shot an angry glare at Kirito, who just laughed nervously. Tiffany sighed and looked back at Jaune and Yang. "It's been too long, Jaune. Yang. How you been?"

"Mostly good. Exploring," Yang said, description as vague as possible with a tone that said she didn't really want any more questions. She looked around, whistling once. "Wow. Moving up in the world."

"Always," Tiffany said. He looked over Jaune's shoulder. "Who's – Oh, God, no!" He wrapped his arm around Kirito and pulled him halfway over the countertop. "Kirito, man, I thought we were friends! Why would you _bring her here!?_ "

"What is this about?" Mercury asked, moving up past Jaune and Yang, forcing them to step aside so the doorway was open.

"I can't wait to find out," Yang said simply.

"Yang – " Jaune began. He sighed before grinning excitedly and admitting, "Me neither."

"Hey, T-Pain. Wazzup in this... hizzy?"

Jaune, Yang, Mercury, and Emerald all turned towards the source of the question. The same hot tempered, possibly sadistic, swordswoman that had just a couple hours ago told Kirito to have more empathy and common sense was standing between them, looking incredibly awkward. Everyone stared at her for a beat before, suddenly, Kirito began to cry. "Are you _crying!_ " Tiffany snapped in disbelief at his friend.

Kirito sniffled and, in a voice full of hope, said, "There's... there's just so much beauty in the world, you know?"

Jaune and Yang couldn't contain their laughter at that.

After getting the black clad swordsman to stop crying tears of pure joy, the group gathered in the back of Tiffany's shop, handing over the odd sword to the shop's owner and telling him what happened. Naturally, Asuna made it _much_ harder. "So them's the sitch, T-Fizzle. Think you can scope the deets on that gat for us... _Homie_?"

Mercury felt like laughing at how uncomfortable the room's atmosphere was. Tiffany looked like he was going to actually kill the girl. After a while, he turned and looked at literally _everyone_ else. "Sure thing, guys. Anything for... anybody but Asuna," he said, voice devoid of the rage he was feeling. Mercury snickered.

"But what about me? T-Pain? What, you got cotton in your ear – OH GOD! I – I didn't mean it like that!" she screamed, hands up as she tried to show how apologetic she felt.

Kirito joined in the laughter. "Okay... Look, Tiff, if you could do this before Grand Wizard Asuna here starts a race war, that'd be great."

"Race wars. Good to know that's not just our world," Yang whispered to Jaune, voice serious.

"Well I can try, but appraising a weapon like this ain't gonna be easy," the tall man said before reaching forward and grabbing the weapon. He held the blade out in front of him before taking a deep breath and swiping his hand down to open a menu. He selected the option that said, 'Appraise,' and a loading screen appeared in front of him.

"Wow. You've really mastered your craft, Tiff," Kirito muttered dryly, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"That's it?" Mercury asked. He sighed. "I was hoping it'd be more... More."

"It's about as impressive as your fighting skills," Kirito remarked with a smirk, ignoring the fact that Mercury had tried to kill him multiple times today. "How haven't you been killed already?"

Mercury grew enraged for a moment before he shook his head and looked away. "Leave him alone," Emerald said after a moment of staring at her partner in surprise at his self control. She marched over to Kirito. "Or else."

Asuna looked over. "Hey... don't," she threatened right back.

Jaune and Yang looked over at each other. "This... isn't going well," he muttered to himself before casting a glance over at the increasingly tense couple of... 'not couples.'

"Yeah..." Yang grimaced. She looked over at Tiffany, who was simply watching with an amused grin. "So, how's the sword, Tiffany?"

The fight cut off and the group turned towards the merchant, who sighed heavily. "And just as it was getting fun," he muttered. He shrugged. "Well, the item description says it's called Heartless Vengeance, made by some guy named Grimlock."

"'Heartless?'" Jaune echoed, suddenly hoarse.

"Like the glitch monsters?" Asuna wondered aloud. She grunted in surprise. "So... does this Grimlock guy have some sort of connection to them?"

"If he does, then these glitch monsters are worse than any of us know," Tiffany said. He placed the sword on the table. "As far as I can tell, there's nothing about this weapon that would let _anyone_ kill someone in a safe zone."

"Well, then," Mercury said, picking it up. "Only one thing to do."

He turned on his heel and swung the weapon directly at Kirito's head. "NO!" everyone in the room shrieked, with Kirito snapping out a "MOMMY!" Asuna dove for Mercury in a vain effort to keep the weapon from slicing Kirito's head clean off.

She needn't worry, however, as the weapon bounced off of Kirito's screaming frame without leaving behind a single scratch. "Aw... it didn't work," Mercury growled before Asuna slammed into him, sending the both tumbling down.

"What were you _thinking!?_ " the girl screamed as her fists wrapped around Mercury's wrists and he was forced tot he ground.

Mercury stared up into her eyes. "I was attacking him with the sword to see if it'd kill him," Mercury countered coolly. His eyes hardened to steel as they locked on to Kirito. "I guess I was unlucky."

Kirito breathed heavily from the wall, eyes wide and glazed over with pure terror as he grasped at himself to check he was really fine. "I... I'm alive?"

Jaune looked over at Mercury's cold glare. He understood animosity with Kirito – God, did he understand. But... This was a lot. This was...

"Merc, why'd you do that?"

Mercury's eyes flicked towards Emerald. Jaune saw the fear, the hurt that filled them as he stared at her and considered her question. "Had to test it somehow," he responded before letting his head hit the ground. He suddenly looked spent.

Jaune suddenly realized, no. It wasn't sudden. He had looked this tired all day. But why? "Don't do it again," Emerald commanded. She gestured at Yang and Jaune as evidence of her next statement. "We're better than that, now."

Mercury shut his eyes. "Okay."

Emerald frowned, then shook her head. "Well, we know it wasn't the weapon that killed Caynz," she said, looking just as tired now. She walked over to it and picked it up, handing it over to Tiffany. "Hold onto this."

"Hmph... handing the black man a murder weapon," he muttered with a shake of his head. "Tale as old as time." He looked over at the horrified Kirito. "If it _could_ kill."

Asuna glared down at Mercury. "He won't do it again." Asuna looked up at Emerald. The green haired girl sighed, "I promise."

 _ **S M H S**_

True to Emerald's word, Mercury had yet to attack Kirito again. He seemed too drained after his earlier attack to try anything else, almost regretful in fact. His animosity seemed to have died with his attack, replaced by a more obvious concern for Emerald and an almost apologetic attention to Kirito. When they had learned from Yolko the experiences surrounding Yolko's death, he remained quiet despite the Darkness of the story. Griselda had been killed for an item – likely by one of her own guild. The only people to vote for keeping the item had been Yolko, Caynz, and a lancer named Shmidt for whom she obviously had... negative feelings. Upon hearing Grimlock had made the weapon, she immediately assumed he was Caynz' murderer; Griselda had been his wife. Mercury's eyes hadn't left Emerald since then.

Now, the group was upstairs with Schmidt and Yolko. Schmidt was crying on his chair, screaming in fear. "Ugh, is he always like this?" Asuna asked, her tolerance for everything already at an all time low.

"Only when he's stressed," Yolko supplied.

"Oh, that's g -" Jaune began.

"He's _always_ stressed," Kirito sighed, having met the lancer a few times outside of this adventure.

"Oh, joy," Yang sighed, falling into another chair. She cast a glance at Yolko. "So, what's he scared about right now?"

"He was a game reviewer in the real world, and now that he's stuck here he's scared some of his more... _verbose_ commenters are going to come after him," Yolko explained as the man continued muttering in terror.

"I laughed at their comments! Laughed! But now, what if they _do_ kill me, hollow out my ribcage, and ride me like some sort of meat toboggan!?" he screamed at the sky.

"Ooh. Meat toboggan. Picture that, guys. Gripping his entrails like the reins of Santa's sleigh, his eyes asking the same questions as those of the horrified children left in his wake..." Kirito said with a smirk. " _... why...?_ "

Schmidt whimpered.

"Look, can you just explain about all this?" Jaune asked, trying to keep another incident like that in Tiffany's shop from occurring again. "We're trying to keep anybody else from dying."

Yolko nodded. "Don't worry about your commenters, Schmidt," she said, walking towards the window. She looked out of it for a second, then looked back at the calming Schmidt. "It's _Grimlock_ , come to take vengeance for the death of Griselda!"

"Oh... no..." Jaune muttered. This was going to turn out _worse_ than Tiffany's shop, he could already tell.

"I disagree. I think she's got flair," Emerald said as she watched the girl at the window.

"Wait..." Yolko muttered. Her eyes widened in abject terror. "No! Grimlock couldn't have killed Griselda inside a safe zone so... It must be Griselda's ghost! Come from beyond the grave to wreak rigtheous vengeance upon us all!"

Kirito grimaced. "Flair? Eh, more like screaming monkeys in her brain..."

"She's claiming righteous vengeance for our crimes, she's going to kill us all!" Yolko continued screaming.

Schmidt was crying in his chair, now.

"You gonna say anything to stop this?" Asuna asked... anybody.

"A ghost didn't kill Caynz," Kirito cut in. He rolled his eyes. "Obviously it was a hit put out by the Mermaid mafia paid with Leprechaun gold... But who was the middleman? The Unicorns? No, the Unicorns and the Leprechauns have been feuding for years..."

Mercury finally cut in. "Wow. Constructive," he muttered quietly.

"She's going to -" Yolko stopped speaking suddenly and everyone's eyes turned from Schmidt over to the window. Yolko was open mouthed, pain flashing across her every feature. "I... I..." Then she turned around, revealing a knife in her back before she tumbled out of the window.

" _Yolko!_ " Jaune screamed, sprinting forward with the speed of a Keyblade wielder. He reached out and tried to grab onto the woman's cape before she could hit the ground. He hit the wall and leaned over, hand wide open in an attempt to grab onto her cape and haul her into the room. His fist wrapped around the cloth tight, catching her. He smiled in relief. "Hang on, I'll -" Then she shattered into a thousand pieces, the cape disappearing with her. Jaune fell to his knees. "No, I..." He looked up, looking for where the knife had come from. He got lucky, catching sight of a figure in a cape.

He surged to his feet. "Yang, Sunrise," he commanded. The blonde brawler nodded solemnly and sprinted forward, jumping over Jaune and grabbing hold of his shoulder before throwing him out of the window and over to the next rooftop. She launched a Firaga behind her as she soared over the street as well, fireball exploding immediately and sending her up to the ceiling after him.

"I'll get hi -" Kirito shouted, trying to follow. He, lacking a way to soar to the next building, was not fast or strong enough to hit the next roof and instead tumbled facefirst into a window.

Mercury and Emerald, however, could. "What's the plan, Blondies?" Emerald asked as the four of them ran across the rooftop after the figure, steadily gaining on it.

"We need to get as close as possible. Mercury and Emerald, you two will fight it head on and give us time to catch up," Jaune said, pausing before readying to launch into his next order.

"No. You'll get there faster than Emerald, Keyboy," Mercury interjected before Jaune could. The Keyblade wielder glanced over to try and find out why, but Mercury was already gone.

Fine, they didn't have time to argue anyways. "Me, then. I'll keep this person busy and we'll catch up."

"You got it, Cap," Yang replied.

Jaune sighed and sprinted off, pouring as much speed on as he could. He lacked a long range melee weapon of the kind that Emerald used that would be useful for restraining and capturing this person. He'd just have to try and freeze the person, then. "Deep freeze!" he shouted, summoning the Keyblade in front of him and sending a rocket of blackened ice soaring at his enemy. Dark Blizzard? He had to remind himself that this wasn't a problem. He was angry, but he wasn't out of control.

The ice soared towards the figure, who was busy struggling to dodge all of Mercury's attacks. The figure received a kick in the chest from Mercury and stumbled back, barely managing to fall to its back so that the icy energy flew right over its chest. "Oof!" the 'Ghost' grunted as its back hit the ground and it failed to phase through the roof.

Jaune filed this information away and leaped into the air, raising his Keyblade and preparing to bring it down to slam into the not-Ghost's chest. The person in the hood yelped in surprise and forced himself to his feet, jumping away just as the Keyblade crashed through the roof, sending wood flying everywhere. Jaune quickly turned this into another attack, letting his anger spike in his gut. "You killed Yolko!" he snapped at the being as ice erupted from the Keyblade and ran across the ground towards the figure's body.

"What!?" the person snapped as the ice shot towards him. He dove out of the spell's curving pat, barely missing a massive icicle that erupted from the ground beneath him. "WHAT!?"

"Some ghost." A pair of sickle kurasigama swirled through the air, crashing into the ground on either side of the figure. The owner of those kurasigama pulled herself feet first towards the figure, her heels slamming into the figure's head and sending him sliding across the ground, where his head collided with Yang's steel toed boot.

"Agh!" The ghost went flying, landing with a thud in the center of the square made up by the four Remnant born warriors.

"Now... tell us what you're doing," Emerald growled, lowering one of her gun's blades at the man's neck. She narrowed her eyes. "I know something is up. I'm an illusionist myself... and those deaths felt off. What did you do?"

The figure's hood wavered for a moment, and the sickle wielder's eyes widened. "You're -" She was tackled out of the way of a dagger that was easily thrown wide, and the figure threw his hand up. A gibberish word escaped his mouth before he disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"Merc, what was that for? He wasn't going to hit me!" Emerald snapped at the figure shielding her with his body. She slammed her fist into his shoulder and shoved him off. She shoved herself up to her feet and glared at him. "You... God, you idiot." She turned towards Yang and Jaune. "Let's go talk to Kirito and Asuna about this. I know exactly what happened." She cast a glance over her shoulder at Mercury. "You can just..." She scoffed and walked away without another word.

"I'll follow you in a minute," Jaune muttered as Yang and Emerald turned to leave. His own eyes never left the angry and hurt Mercury who remained kneeling on the ground.

Yang followed his gaze. "We'll keep the fire warm and figure out the next move," she said. She placed her hand on Jaune's shoulder, comforting him and telling him he could do it. Then she patted his shoulder again and left.

Jaune kept glaring at Mercury for a few minutes, the moon drifting into view from behind the clouds. "What!?" the former assassin snapped. He surged to his feet. "What is it, Blondie!?"

"Why are you acting like this?" Jaune inquired. He dismissed the Keyblade and crossed his arms.

Mercury scoffed as he stood up. "Like what, Blondie?"

Jaune walked up to Mercury. "You're acting weird when it comes to Emerald and Kirito," Jaune explained. He shrugged. "I acted the same way once. But I want to know why you're doing it now. Did she almost die? Did he hurt someone? What happened?"

"No!" Mercury cried. He sighed and tried to calm himself down. It kind of worked. "No, she didn't get hurt. And the black haired idiot couldn't hurt anyone with a little bit of skill."

Jaune studied his former enemy's face. "Then what happened?"

Mercury shrugged. "I don't know." He looked up and caught sight of Jaune's serious, disbelieving glare. Mercury shrugged again. "Fine. You want to know?"

"Uh... I mean, I asked?" Jaune said aloud, unsure of the correct answer.

Mercury glared in silence for a few moments. "Well... if anyone would understand, it'd be you," Mercury said. He bit his cheek. Then: "Just – Look, just don't let Em find out. Promise me, Blondie. _Promise_ me."

Jaune considered the question for a while. "Why?" he finally asked, voice earnest. "What if she needs to know?"

"It would hurt her, Jaune. She doesn't remember, but she's still... fragile." He shook his head. "Never thought I'd say that; she's tough as diamond."

The Keyblade wielder flinched. Mercury had used his real name? Jaune thought about it for a few more seconds until, finally, he said, "Okay. I promise I won't tell her."

Mercury studied Jaune's face for a moment, wondering if he could trust the Keyblade wielder's promise. That stung, but Jaune understood given how he'd betrayed his friends once before. It seemed good enough for Mercury, however. "Fine. I'll tell you, Blondie. It all happened at the Sheeptar raid last night."

 _ **S M H S**_

Mercury leaped forward with a huge grin on his face, easily moving over the huge stream of acid that had flown from Sheeptar's open maw. The Sheep King was perched on one of the raid room's walls, its six legs gripping the stone so it could rain down death from above. Its tail swished dangerously near a set of stone outcroppings, keeping the raid party away from stairs one could use to jump on its back and initiate an attack. In fact, Mercury was one of the very few fighters who were fast enough to begin that assault.

The former assassin hit the ground in a roll, activating his Semblance when he came back up to his feet. He zoomed past a sudden twitch of the lizard like tail of Sheeptar the Sheep King that sent a few players flying and into critical condition. It had been like this for a few hours, a constant and never ending fight that changed every five minutes as another bar of Sheeptar's health disappeared and triggered the next stage of the battle. This looked to be the last one, but Sheeptar's placement on the wall made it difficult to hurt him. Hence Mercury's placement as the tip of the proverbial spear.

The fight was going rather well, he thought as he ran parallel to the wall that Sheeptar hung onto; the raid party had yet to lose a single warrior this go. After the seven deaths in the last three attempts on Sheeptar's life, that was a pretty good sign. The first stair was a good six feet in front of him, leading up to the second stair three or so feet beyond that. He jumped and ran across the wall, pushing up and moving fast enough to keep his descent back to the ground slow – he was fairly certain that if he wasn't from Remnant and his Semblance wasn't speed, it wouldn't have worked. He jumped from the wall after about five feet, leaping past the first stair entirely and landing on the second with enough momentum he was forced to keep moving from stair to stair lest he risk falling to the ground.

He tossed that familiar streak of mint green hair a cocky smile before closing his eyes and jumping to the third stair. He nearly toppled over and elected to keep his eyes open from now on; he could practically feel Emerald's eye roll-scoff combo for that mistake he'd made. Mercury grit his teeth and focused, making sure to keep his balance as he got ever closer to the monster. Soon, he was close enough to leap onto the nearest puff of pink wool. He pulled himself up effortlessly and soon found himself standing atop the cloud, terrifying, horrible, black scales not far from his face.

"Okay. Let's have some fun," Mercury said to himself. He raised his fists to enter a ready stance before lancing out with his right foot, coating it with icy energy that he could use to build stairs along the monster's back while hurting the creature. The monster roared angrily as his foot collided with its spine, the magic dealing non-trivial damage to the monster. It shook its body violently, sending Mercury flying up. He was barely able to wrap his fingers around the icicle to keep himself from getting thrown away. He pulled himself against it when the monster began to calm down and start to attack the raid party again. He grinned and pulled his feet onto the icicle, giving him a better springboard to rocket up to the monster's head. "EM! Watch this!" He coated his foot with flames and slammed it into the base of Sheeptar's terrifying skull. The monster roared in pain and its feet disconnected from the wall, tumbling to the ground.

Merc landed softly by the wall, grinning as the green haired girl ran up to him. "Showing off already?" she asked, elbowing him in the side.

"Why wouldn't I?" Mercury retorted before they looked over at Sheeptar again. It seemed the monster was spawning mini-mes to defend itself. "Well, looks like we're back on murder duty."

"Who would have thought it really was a fluffy Xenomorph?" Emerald asked her partner, spinning her sickles and readying to go fight the mob enemies.

"You called it," Mercury replied with a grin. He gestured at the monsters. "After you."

"Wow. Gentlemanly," Emerald remarked before charging the monsters. Mercury scoffed and took after her, grinning.

These mobs were a rather easy fight, especially in comparison to the larger boss that the main body of the raid party was dealing with. Well, 'dealing.' There was a group playing Bejewled in the back, for some reason, and a bunch of people who were pretending to attack while actually staying away from the combat. The people who were actually good at fighting – specifically Heathcliff and Asuna – were quickly taking out that last bit of damage that kept the monster alive. Mercury spun and kicked one tiny Sheeptar's face off. "Bet I kill more," he half-joked.

"As if," Emerald retorted, using both sickles to kill a monster apiece. She spun and threw out one of the chains, wrapping it around one of the Sheeplet's throats and turning on her heel to throw it at another.

Mercury narrowed his eyes and picked up his pace. "Oh, I will!" he shouted at her, kicking a hole into another's chest then dropkicking another one into a third, flames coating its skin so that both died in a tiny, fiery explosion. It went on like that for a few minutes until, finally, Sheeptar shrieked at the ceiling and shattered.

"I win!" Mercury snapped when the mob enemies suddenly disappeared. He turned and pointed at Emerald. "I won!"

"Wha-? Hell no you didn't!" Emerald shouted back. She crossed her arms. "I _totally_ won!"

Mercury just grinned at her. "Fine," he replied with a shrug. "I'll let you have this one. This time."

"Okay, sure," Emerald responded, smirking.

Mercury rolled his eyes and leaned away from her, looking away to hide a blush after their eyes met. "So, where do you think that Kirito guy is? He was pretty angry we were running late earlier and it doesn't look like he's here."

"Who knows," Emerald shrugged. "Do you really care?"

Mercury looked back at her. "Ha! … Nah..."

"Good, I -"

An explosion of Darkness cut off her next words and sent the two warriors flying away from each other. Mercury came to a moment later, and found that Sheeptar had returned, worse than before. Its fluff had become sharp and solid, keeping the pink color but adding in sharp yellow spikes that looked like Gummi. The skin was now deep black with a skull elongated far beyond the norm and the arms had taken on a more skeletal theme. "Ah, crud," Mercury muttered. He saw the monster shriek, its glowing maw releasing a stream of green magic that burned through a group of fighters. Most managed to dodge, though a trio of tanks shattered after a few slow seconds. Mercury bit his cheek, wondering what to do before he noticed that Emerald had already started charging.

"Dammit, Em," he cursed to himself before surging to his feet and sprinting after her.

He weaved through panicking players, all of them screaming about how this wasn't supposed to happen anymore. "What!? But... Game Over, Man! Game Over!" Heathcliff screamed as the no-longer-fluffy-Xenomorph roared at them.

"Now isn't the time, Sir!" Asuna shouted, trying to drag him away.

Mercury didn't care. He leaped forward, vaulting with one shivering lancer's shoulders and landing next to Emerald. "How are we gonna stop that thing?" he asked. From this angle he could see the Heartless emblem prevalent on the chest 'fluff' of the monster.

"We'll think of something," she replied, unsure.

Mercury didn't want to say he disagreed. "Okay, then let's jump in," he said, jumping ahead of her. He shot a pair of Firagas at the Heartless, attacks that splashed uselessly against the sharp wool and disappeared into nothing. He grimaced and twisted midair to avoid an incoming claw attack. He felt wind run across his back, the claw passing beneath him by barely an inch. The two swordsmen in the claw's path were not as lucky, instead vanishing in explosions of Darkness, Hearts rising to the sky. Mercury landed hard and tumbled.

Emerald ran past him, abandoning any level of secrecy when it came to her guns. Bullets laced with magical energy lanced out from her guns, smacking against the Heartless' body and dealing minor damage. "Merc, you okay?" she called, voice tinged with worry.

"Yeah, it didn't hit me," he replied, leaping forward and firing his own attack. Sheeptar roared, more in annoyance than anything else, and raised its claw. A massive gust of wind flew at Mercury and Emerald while they continued to fire at the creature, everyone else in the raid party too scared to do anything else. They were thrown backwards, all the way across the room, and collided with the stone wall. Mercury and Emerald landed in heaps next to one another, groaning. "Well... it did that time."

"Ugh..." Emerald replied hoarsely.

Mercury looked over and pushed himself up to his knees. She was still down; conscious, but unable to move while her Aura worked overtime to fix her wounds. Mercury knew he wasn't too much better, though. He was barely up on his knees. It was then that he noticed the Heartless had its eyes locked on the both of them. It took a step towards them, then another. Another. It was ignoring all the other fighters in its path, stepping without care for whether or not they were beneath its feet. They scattered. Remarkably, none of them died.

"Em, get up." Mercury shook her arm. "Em, you gotta get up."

She stirred and tried to push herself up. She failed.

Mercury shut his eyes. "God...dammit, Em," Mercury muttered. He found the resolve to force himself to his feet. "Why am I doing this? Even for you?" He didn't know. Really. But he sprinted towards the Heartless anyways, determined to get Emerald the time she needed to get back in the fight. The monster looked down and stopped moving as spells began to pepper its skin. "Yeah, ugly! Pay attention to me, Little Lamb!"

The creature hissed and lashed out with its tail. Mercury grit his teeth and jumped back, flipping until he was just outside of the tail's range. Before Mercury landed, however, the monster's sharp tail extended suddenly and impaled him. He froze and felt rather than saw the black encroach on his vision. He didn't have much time to ponder the pain blooming in his chest as, with speed surprising for such a large creature, he was tossed through the air again, a massive cold feeling in his entire body.

 _"_ _MERCURY!"_ He heard, far away. He blinked; that voice sounded familiar. Who – The face came into view.

"Oh, right. Em!" he said, even though he couldn't hear his own voice. "It's you."

"Merc, hold on!" she snapped, grabbing his face and forcing him to stare into her eyes.

He laughed, and his brain yelled at him that nothing funny was going on. The blood loss – he hadn't been aware that could happen in this world – told him that it was funny. "Hold on to what?"

Em glared at him, her usual disappointment filled instead with fear. "I..." It was replaced with rage a couple seconds later. Her hands wrapped around the lamp at her waist. She rubbed her hands over the genie's home, roaring in rage. "GENIE! Save him!" Then she tossed the lamp to the ground and turned towards the Heartless, breathing heavy.

"Save who?" Genie asked, yawning as he appeared out of the lamp in a cloud of smoke. "I –" He froze when he saw Mercury. His face grew resolute and he snapped his fingers. Mercury gasped in pain as his body stitched itself together.

A pulse of rage, terror, and jealousy ran through the humans, breaking their concentration on the battle.

"What is that thing?"

"Where'd he come from!?"

"Is he saving that guy's life!?"

"How come he gets to live?"

"Al, this isn't good," Genie muttered while Mercury slowly healed. "Al, we need to get out of here. People seeing me isn't good."

Mercury breathed heavily and stared at her, worry filling his heart. "Em? Em, are you okay?" He pushed himself up despite his pain and reached for her.

The scream that tore from her throat that accompanied the pulse of Darkness that came off the woman moments later kept him from reaching Emerald, instead tossing hi away from her. He rolled across the ground, the lamp slamming into his gut as soon as he stopped moving. "Em!" he shouted, standing up on unsteady legs again and grabbing onto the lamp. "EM!"

She couldn't hear him; she was captured by her inner Darkness as it swirled through her soul and filled her Heart with rage. "EM! Em, what are you doing!?"

She was just walking towards the Heartless, Darkness swirling in her hands, off her shoulders, and through her hair. Mercury could only watch, still in horrible pain from the wound freshly healed in his gut when she stopped in front of the Heartless. It raised its claw and brought it down, right on top of her.

"EMERALD!" he screamed, rushing forward, only for a large blue arm to grab him.

"Don't, Silver," the Genie ordered, uncharacteristically calm. He frowned. "She's still alive. For now."

"How? She was just flattened, you gas giant!" Mercury snapped back.

Genie shook his head and pointed towards the Heartless. A large, black blade was protruding from the monster's wrist. The claw had disappeared into shadow, leaving behind nothing. Emerald held two large, black sickles in her hands. Chains erupted from the walls, huge. "Illusions?" Mercury whispered, only to be surprised when the Darkness that ran through her collided full force with the Heartless and it was flipped head over heels by the blow. "How!? She's an illusionist!"

"Darkness," Genie explained solemnly. He seemed just as worried as Mercury himself, concern for the girl apparent in both of their eyes. "If you stop her now, she'll be stunned. She'll die."

Emerald leaped towards the falling Heartless, spinning like a whirlwind that caused the black blades to slash across the monster's chest. The Heartless' once impenetrable Gummi-fluff shattered from the continuous blows, one by one carving apart the monstrous armor. She brought the blades of Darkness together in front of her, crashing through the acid magic that the Heartless had launched at hr in an attempt to kill her. It dissipated on the sickles and she flicked back, sending a buffeting burst of air at the creature that sent it off balance. The Darkness around her shoulders seemed to have deepened upon absorbing and deflecting the Dark spell, and the sickles grew. The Heartless swiped at her again, but she threw the sickles up, black chains sprouting from her weapons and pulling her towards the ceiling.

Emerald dropped above the Heartless, weapons crossed in front of her and a look of quiet rage on her features. Monsters sprouted from the Darkness, screeching illusions of the Grimm made real that charged the Heartless' feet and slashed at it. The other players screamed in terror and drew their weapons, holding them defensively while the monsters passed them. Mercury knew, somehow, that wouldn't last long. Especially not when Emerald reached the Heartless and brought her attacks across her body so that the blades passed through the base of Sheeptar's neck. She landed on the ground with a quiet thud beneath the sudden explosion of Darkness caused by the Heartless' inability to hold itself together. Mercury took a half step forward. "Em -"

"Hey, what is that thing!?" He barely was able to jump backwards before the attacking player could steal the lamp from his grasp. The player – a girl with closely cropped black hair – hefted a large ax over her shoulder. "Give it here! I want to make a wish!"

Mercury grit his teeth and took a step back. "What's the plan, Silver?" the genie asked, worried. "I won't kill anybody, remember?"

"I know, just..." Mercury growled and looked around. More than just that player were advancing on him.

"You're gonna give me that, or -"

The Grimm shrieked in rage and drew away the attention of the players. The fight had ended, but... "Form a line!" Heathcliff shouted, raising his sword above his head. But in reality, it had just begun. The Grimm – mostly Beowolves and a few Ursai – were slamming into players, slashing at them, trying to kill them. The players attacking Mercury were picked off by a Nevermore that appeared out of nowhere, screeching a battle cry.

Genie laughed nervously. "Okay. Time for you to rescue her."

"Rescue – ? HOW!?" Mercury snapped at the blue figure floating next to him. He looked over at Emerald. Saying what now felt like a catchphrase, he went, "God... dammit, Em!" He sprinted at full speed into the center of the fight. She wouldn't hurt him. She wouldn't hurt him. She wouldn't – He was so fixated on that mantra that he barely dodged the Ursa claw swiping at his head. Okay, she wouldn't hurt him _on purpose_! He redoubled his speed to get to her.

She wasn't moving anymore, but the Darkness around her was coalescing, shaking. Reaching out in every direction to feed the Grimm she'd made. "Em! Em!" he snapped when he got close, grabbing onto her shoulders. "Em!" Her eyes, a dull yellow instead of the usual bright red, didn't see him. "Em, you have to stop this. You won. The monster's dead. It's over!"

She didn't respond, though her eyes did fix on him. "Emerald, let it go. Please," he ordered. He slid his hands down to hers. "Em... _Please_."

She didn't respond, and the Darkness flared again. It pushed against Mercury, forcing his fingers from her and moving him backwards across the stone. He held on, but just barely, to her fingers with his own. "Emerald..." He fought his voice, now on the edge of breaking. "Don't." He'd lost that fight, it seemed.

She blinked once, eyes turning bright red again. "Wha-?" she asked, finally snapped out of the Darkness that had been holding her. She was disoriented, nearly falling. Mercury surged forward to balance her. She shook her head in an effort to get blood flowing and wake her up. Mercury looked around, hopeful. The Grimm were disappearing, just like he'd expected. But... Slow. They kept hurting people. Good, that meant they had a distraction. "Mercury, what..?"

"Al, we gotta go," Genie said, appearing out of thin air beside the two. "They saw the lamp, they're going to try to take it. And I'd rather stick with you than... BigBootiez4Lyf..." Genie shook his head, utterly disappointed.

"Mercury, what happened?" Emerald asked. She looked around, taking in the screams of pain and the noise of the slowly disappearing Grimm. Mercury bit his lip. He hadn't even heard the screams. No, that wasn't it. He just hadn't cared. "Did I do this?" She clutched her gut as if she had been hit there as hard as possible. "I'm worried I did this? Worried? Heh... me?" She clutched tighter at herself.

"Em, it doesn't matter! We need to get out of here!" Mercury commanded. He raised his hand and opened a portal of Darkness. "Now." He pulled, but she wouldn't budge. " _Brown-noser,_ _**come on!**_ "

She looked up, but she wasn't looking at him. She was horrified, staring at the ceiling as she realized she had created the Grimm.. Mercury swallowed before letting out a dry scoff. "When did you actually start caring about people?" he asked, half impressed and half disappointed. The portal shut. _When did I start actually falling for you?_ He made up his mind. "Well, you won't remember this anyways." He held the lamp in his left hand, and with his right grabbed hold of her neck, very tenderly. He pulled them together, placing his lips on hers in a passionate albeit soft kiss. He let himself forget where he was for a couple seconds, just enjoying that he got to do this once before he died.

He let go and took a step back, Emerald still leaning into the kiss so she stumbled forward to catch herself. "Genie. Give her my third wish," Mercury commanded, holding the lamp out in front of him. "And for my second wish... Make everyone else forget _everything_ that happened after Sheeptar became a Heartless."

Emerald's eyes widened as she understood what that meant. "What? Merc -?"

"Everything!" the assassin whispered, tears streaming down his face.

Emerald reached for him, but everything turned white.

 _ **S M H S**_

"And after that, we left. Me and Genie are the only ones who remember," Mercury muttered, hands in his pockets.

Jaune sighed. He wondered if this Genie was the same one from Sora's stories, but realized it didn't matter right now. He had more important things to deal with. "So why blame Kirito?"

Mercury laughed dryly. "Look, if he'd been there, maybe it wouldn't have happened. Maybe I wouldn't have been nearly killed, so Em never would have freaked out and lost herself to it." He leaned against one of the chimneys nearby. "One more fighter could have changed everything."

Jaune nodded, then moved to his next question"So why not tell her?"

"She was always softer than I was," he said with a shrug. "Without Cinder, her Heart's not in hurting people. If she knew what she'd done, I don't know if she'd be able to take it."

"So it's just because you love her?" Jaune asked.

Mercury didn't even deny it. "With all my Heart. She makes me better? That's what you'd say," he explained sadly. He laughed after a moment's thought. "Not that she'll ever know."

Jaune shook his head. Gone was the rage of what this man had helped do to Pyrrha so long ago now, mostly because Mercury and Emerald were not the same people anymore. Both had become so much better and stronger because of the people around them, and even still did. "She should."

"Nah." Mecury pushed himself up. "Thanks for listening. I needed it."

Jaune felt blindsided by what Mercury had said. "Er... I mean..." He took a breath to steady himself. "I was just trying to do what Sora would do."

"I think you were trying to do what you'd do," Mercury responded. He shrugged. "Not my business, though." He walked past the Keyblade wielder, hands still in his pockets. "We better find out where we're headed next."

Jaune turned after him. "Tell her everything," he advised the assassin. "I'm telling you as... as a friend. You'll regret it if you don't."

"Not a chance," Mercury said, waving back at Jaune. He pocketed his hands and walked on in silence, considering his next words carefully. Finally he settled on a single word: "... Buddy."


	15. That's Not Love

**AN: Hey everybody. Sorry it's been so long. I had two end of Quarter projects that I had to focus on and then finals in the past month. I have been working on this in my spare time, but I was really able to buckle down during nights over spring break. I'm glad to be releasing another chapter, especially since the next chapter is going to be a big one!**

 **Anyways, responses.**

 **To Gamelover41592: If... If is good.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: I'm glad you loved last chapter so much. It was one of my favorites, too, and will pay off when Merc and Em meet the villain. That's a meeting that won't end well for them.**

 **Anyways, enjoy! I'll try to come out with a new chapter faster next time.**

 _ **Chapter 15: That's Not Love**_

Jaune pumped his fists furiously as he, Kirito, and Mercury ran through the Dark Forest level of Aincrad, a haunted and terrifying location in which Griselda's guild had decided to 'bury' her. For some reason. It seemed a little out of the way for a grave site you might want to visit one day, but Jaune supposed that was their bad choice to make. Kirito, meanwhile, had latched onto the poor decision with a vengeance. He hadn't stopped complaining for what was starting to feel like hours to the two warriors with him. "Like seriously, who decided that having the grave in a place more like a movie cemetery than a real cemetery would be a good idea?" Kirito muttered, voice a low growl. "I bet they were thinking 'Oh, this aesthetic is _so_ cool, let's just do it here! What? Monsters? Who cares! It's like a movie!'"

"Oh my God..." Mercury hissed, trying incredibly hard to push down his desire to go after the swordsman again. With his fists clenched tight while they pumped, Jaune could even tell he was holding back a murder. "Do you just love hearing the sound of your own voice?"

"It's my gift to the world," Kirito retorted with a shrug.

Jaune sighed but kept his mouth shut. Better to focus on reaching their destination and making sure that Yolko and Caynz didn't go to all the trouble of faking their deaths for it to end up actually happening. Talking – Jaune had to be honest with himself, he meant _arguing_ – wasn't going to help with that. It seemed, however, that Mercury did not have the same beliefs as the Keyblade Wielder. "Well it wasn't on my registry."

"Too bad," Kirito remarked. Mirth entered his voice as he began laughing at his own joke, ever so lightly. "No refunds or exchanges. Only store credit."

"Can we just concentrate on running?" Jaune growled over his shoulder at the two.

"If he would be quiet!" Mercury hissed, murder in his voice.

Simultaneously from Kirito: "What? Can't walk and talk at the same time?"

Jaune's eye twitched. "Why don't we play the quiet game? Show us how superior you are to us in every way, huh?" he asked dryly, not even bothering to hope that this would work.

Kirito smirked and shook his finger in front of him as he ran. "Oh, I don't need to prove self-evident truths, Dumber," he rebuked.

Jaune groaned. "Of course not..." The blonde Keyblade wielder felt his shoulders sag. "Because why would I ever get a break?"

Mercury smirked, unable to hold back a joke at Jaune's expense. "Looks like I win, Buddy."

"I hate you both," Jaune muttered quietly.

"Do you?" Kirito asked.

"... Mostly you."

"Hey!"

"... Now, as Jesus once said... 'Schmitches... get stitches...'"

The three warriors visibly cringed as they heard that quiet statement. "Ugh, I don't think _any_ religion would use a book that had that written in it," Kirito said to himself.

"What? Man, that's not even a real word, much less – Ugh, never mind. Can we just kill these losers and -"

Jaune rocketed forward upon hearing that, summoning the Keyblade to his hand and coating it in a brilliant wall of Light that exploded from its surface and surrounded Schmidt, who was laying frozen on the ground. A large meat cleaver slammed into the Reflect wall and brilliant Light exploded at the point of contact, causing the offending player to shriek in pain and fly backwards, tumbling to the ground and clutching at his wrist. The weapon lay broken beside him for a moment before, finally, disappearing into a cloud of blue shards. "W-what?" the man's partners shrieked.

The three assassins of 'Laughing Coffin' were dressed in a ragged uniform of grays and black. Cloaks hid their faces underneath dark shadows that let little other than a pair of glowing red eyes escape one's face. Johnny Black, the title above his head said. Another, the one on the ground, had a much more normal name: Jeffery. The third was DeezNutz69. Jaune was growing immensely tired of this world.

"Oh, and who the hell is this?" DeezNutz69 – Jaune wasn't going to do this. DN. – DN asked.

"That's Deputy Dumber, this is Deputy Buznik, and I'm Detective Kirito, Aincrad PD. I'm on the hunt for a murderer, and these three are the only witnesses," Kirito responded, sliding next to Jaune and unsheathing his blade to hold it in a defensive position. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take them in."

"Deputies?" Mercury asked.

"Ixnay on the guingaray in front of the urderermays!" Kirito hissed under his breath so just Jaune and Mercury could hear. The swordsman was not even moving his mouth so that the assassins would not think he was saying anything. "God, I should just call you Dumbest!"

"Oh, you think you're the world's greatest detective? No, wait... that's _Batman_! And you'll _never_ be Batman, will you?" Mercury snapped, referencing a comic he'd read on another world once. It was a boring world. No monsters.

"Fuck you!" Kirito snapped, turning and ignoring the assassins to shout at Mercury.

"Uh... w-what's going on with you guys?"

Mercury glared at the three. "Stay out of this you wannabes!"

"... Oh my God, every time..." Jaune whispered hoarsely.

"Wannabes!? We received this holy mission from the Lord himself!" Jeffery shouted angrily. He raised his hand and another weapon appeared in it, a more cruel and stylized cleaver. "How dare you disrespect us?"

"Like this." Kirito stuck his tongue out at them, and Jaune was just relieved that he and Mercury had decided to turn their snark on the same target for once. "And seriously? 'Jesus tells me to kill?' Do any of you have a single original bone in your bodies? Contract killing is already a beat we can all get dance to, so you don't need to add in the insanity of a merciful figure telling you personally to kill!"

"I – AGH!" the leader charged Kirito.

"Okay, this is a thing we're doing," DN noted, disappointed.

"It's not," Jaune noted, getting between Kirito and Jeff, ice coating the Keyblade before he let it out and froze the assassin in his tracks. Kirito lashed out with his sword, the tip stopping centimeters from Johnny Black's throat and stopping his rushing attack in its tracks. DN just looked over at Mercury, who was standing with the perfect, trained grace of a real assassin... and just dropped his weapon.

"Smart," Mercury said simply.

DN nodded and shrugged. "Yeah, I think so."

"Now, we don't like killing people," Jaune said, though he paused to look over at Mercury.

The silver haired speedster returned his questioning stare for a moment. "What? What!?"

Jaune didn't say anything back to him, but returned his gaze to DN. "But, we'll do it if you attack us."

"He's right. So... I say you drop Jim Jones off at a prison and become real contract killers! Get your names out there, make some money. I mean you're _Laughing Coffin!_ Cash in on that name recognition! Oh! And be in contact with me – I've got some ideas," Kirito said, clicking his tongue and shooting a finger gun at the two still conscious assassins. Jaune frowned, but decided to trust Kirito. So far he'd displayed a desire to prevent murders, so maybe there was a plan here. "Make us all rich, huh?"

DN and Johnny Black traded a glance. "Can I _please_ kill Schmidt? I promised to make him into a meat toboggan," Johnny asked, his creepy voice hopeful.

"Mmm... No," Jaune said simply, hefting his weapon up onto his shoulder. "Now, I'd toss him into a jail and – my advice – rethink being killers. It's a path towards a Darkness you don't want."

Johnny and DN traded another glance. "Well – we'll just get out of your hair, I guess. Um.. those guys are yours, I guess," DN said quickly, grabbing hold of one of Jeff's arms, Johnny grabbing the other, and they dragged him away. "Bye... I guess..."

"Aw... I was hoping for a fight," Mercury muttered sadly.

Kirito grunted in surprise. "Cool, wait till I tell Tiff we have slaves."

" _No!_ " Jaune commanded, horror in his voice.

"Now, Dumber, I am horrified you would think so little of me... I'm joking," Kirito supplied innocently.

"Not even then!" Jaune reprimanded again.

"Um... not to sound ungrateful guys but... what are you even doing here?" Yolko piped in when it appeared that Kirito was about to say something else Jaune would find offensive. "You thought we were dead!"

"Well, you couldn't fool Emerald," Mercury said, gesturing with his thumb over his shoulder. "When it comes to... 'sleight of hand' she's a bit of an expert. She didn't think you guys were really dead from the get go."

"Sadly, I _didn't_ figure it out first," Kirito admitted, voice depressed. He rolled his eyes before sheathing his sword and placing his hands on his hips. "But it really wasn't all that difficult, either. I did some poking around before coming here and I found out all about this nifty little glitch in that level's code that swaps out the teleport animation for the death one. The trick? It only works if the game thinks you're in free fall. Say... if you're hanging from a clock tower or falling out a window?"

"But... that wouldn't have mattered if it had been a ghost!" Yolko contested hotly.

"Oh, that? I'm not _stupid_!" Kirito snapped. Jaune and Mercury traded a glance.

"Yeah, that'd do it," Caynz muttered dryly.

"Shut up, Caynz," Yolko snapped. She pouted. "I thought it was clever."

"And you must have been faking your deaths for a reason. We knew it must have been because you assumed that Schmidt had killed Griselda, given what you said about the 'ghost.' Which, having met him... how would you assume that?" Jaune asked, completely surprised. "I've met more stable terr – er... I've met people with psychotic breaks more stable than he is."

"... Hey," Mercury said defensively after a second.

"Not you," Jaune clarified. Half joking: "Actually..."

"Which meant," Kirito cut in, annoyed at not being the one in charge of the conversation anymore. "That you must have thought that Schmidt had killed Griselda!"

"Yes!" Caynz snapped. He turned on the lancer. "Why?"

"Yeah, Schmidt! Why? Why would you kill Griselda!?" Yolko echoed, voice distraught.

"Huh? Oh, _no._ No, he didn't do it," Mercury said with a laugh.

"B-wha?" Yolko wondered aloud.

"How!? He's the only one who had any motive!" the 'dead' man snapped.

Kirito smirked. "Tell me. Do you think he would trust anyone else with the job?"

Caynz grimaced. "Well, no, but -"

"Then you must believe he was strong enough to fight her? Or perhaps smart enough to catch her unawares?"

There was a pregnant silence that seemed to last forever as the incredibly cruel statement about Schmidt finally hit home. "Oh my God..." Caynz muttered in disbelief. "Schmidt _can't_ be the killer."

"Oh, come on!" Schmidt cried out at being called a weak idiot.

"But then why did you apologize to us?"

"People threatened to kill me for giving RWBY&R a 7/10. At, uh -at this point? It's better to just assume the position..." Caynz muttered, nervously chuckling.

Caynz sighed, arms around Yolko still. "Well this is nice and all, but I'm left with one important question... Who the hell are you people!?"

"Oh, Caynz! I had to entangle them in our web of lies!" Yolko cried out.

"... _WHY!?_ "

"It was... to... huh?"

Caynz sighed. "Well... if Schmidt isn't the killer... who is?"

The fists of every young warrior clenched as one as rage filled them. "The only person it could be," Jaune spat.

"An actual monster," Mercury continued, venom in his words.

"Isn't that right... _Grimlock!?_ " Kirito shouted, turning dramatically and gesturing at the fog. Yolko gasped in surprise as... nothing came out. "Ugh... I _said_... 'Isn't that right... _GRIMLOCK!?'_ "

"Um... Gasp?" Yolko let out.

"I _**SAID -**_ "

"God, stop! You scream louder than my little sister!" Yang shouted from the fog as she, Asuna, and Emerald all walked up, another figure between them with their weapons pointed directly at him.

"If you respond, she'll keep doing it," Jaune warned, his own experience speaking.

Kirito, however, could not resist. "I will kill you!" he screamed.

"And now it's more high pitched, too," Yang said with a hearty laugh.

"He warned you, Idiot," Mercury pointed out, crossing his arms and leaning against the tree.

Caustic and angry, Kirito remarked, "With friends like these..."

Caynz, already looking at Yolko out of the corner of his eye, asked Asuna, Emerald, and Yang, "And who the hell are you?"

"I, um... accidentally entangled them, too?" Yolko responded. She seemed to be growing steadily more unsure of her prior decisions.

"Jesus! How big is this web, Yolko? We're catching _school buses_ in this thing!"

"Hey, don't get angry at her," Asuna interjected. "If she hadn't forgotten to take us off her friends list, we'd never have found and saved you guys."

All color left Caynz face. "Y-you forgot to delete... your friends list?" he asked, calmly. "We planned this for months and you _forgot to DELETE_ _ **YOUR FRIENDS**_ _ **LIST!?**_ "

"It was hard. All the menus -"

"A child could figure the menus out!" Caynz roared in insult.

At Kirito's snickering, Asuna glared right at him. "Shutty..."

"Anyways, it was Grimlock who killed his wife," Jaune cut in in an effort to get things back on track.

"Grimlock? But he was helping us with this whole thing!" Caynz protested as the figure, complete with stupid hat, came into view.

"Any mediocre killer knows to pin a murder on someone else," Mercury scoffed.

"And their marriage is what tipped me off first. Did you know that there's a little used but _incredibly_ useful facet to the marriage component of the game?" Kirito inquired. His smirk grew. "Spouses share inventory space. Grimlock could have killed Griselda and pocketed the item at any time, isn't that right?!" He whirled on the meek individual and pointed directly at the man's face.

"Are you mad!?... I did not kill my wife for something as... _trivial_ as money..." Grimlock began, disgusted by the mere idea of what had been suggested..

Jaune walked over to stand by Yang. "This is gonna be bad," he muttered. She sighed in disappointment and silently nodded.

"No... my story is far more tragic."

Yang's grimaced. This was going to be _so much_ worse than either she or Jaune had thought. "Oh, no..."

"We were so in love. In all our time together we never had a single fight!" the madman explained, his high pitched voice streaking through the empty forest. His voice grew gravelly – well, gravelly for him – and enraged as he continued on. "But then, one night, everything changed..." His voice took on a falsetto as he began to quote his wife. "'I'm sorry, Honey, I don't have time to make dinner. I have to go meet Yolko and the girls to strategize for the raid. But there's still some leftovers in the fridge! Don't worry, I'll make it up to you tomorrow. Love you!'" Grimlock shuddered with disgust. "And just like that, I realized the woman I had loved was _gone!_ I was devastated! How could she betray me like this!? Clearly, if I was to preserve her memory, to hold onto the angel she once was, something drastic... had to be done."

Grimlock lowered his head. "So you see, _Children_ , I didn't kill Griselda... I killed the _thing_ that took her place."

Everyone was stunned to silence. Yang shut her eyes, feeling almost physical pain. _So. Much. Worse..._ she groaned inwardly. She cast a glance over to Jaune, whose hands were shaking with fury. "You..." Jaune began, utter disdain dripping from his voice. The Keyblade appeared in his hand, Dark and Light mingling on its edge. Yang stepped over and placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him. She already wanted to beat Grimlock herself, so she didn't expect much of a change. The Dark and Light shrank, at least.

She was surprised when it turned out that someone else was the person she needed to keep an eye on. Mercury, as it turned out, was more on edge about this exchange than Jaune was. His black boot lanced out, weapon inactive, and slammed into the madman's sternum. "You think this is a goddamn joke!? That we're supposed to laugh at this insanity!?" He stood over the madman, range glowing out of his eyes. "You killed her for love, huh? To save her from what she'd become? That's not how it works. Love is giving up everything for someone else. Not taking. Watching them outgrow _you._ " He stepped towards the terrified Grimlock and pressed his boot to the man's throat. The weapon shifted and its barrels were aimed at Grimlock's neck, ready to tear the life from him. "It's been a while since I had fun killing a human being. I'm excited."

"Merc," Emerald cautioned, walking up. He turned an eye towards her. "I'm all for killing him, but..." She gestured at Yang, Jaune, Kirito, and Asuna.

"We don't mind," Kirito and Asuna stated simply.

Yang glanced at Jaune, willing to let him make this choice. He could feel all this, after all. He understood that... soul searing kind of connection in a way that Yang didn't. She couldn't tell if she was jealous she'd never felt that or thankful she'd never lost it. "I don't understand why you would do it," Jaune said simply.

Grimlock took this as a question. "You'll know when you're in love, kid."

That, if Jaune actually asked a question, would have been the wrong answer. The Keyblade slammed into the dirt beside his head, quivering in the dirt where Jaune had thrown it. "I knew love. Real, honest _love._ I lost that love. Which is why I don't understand how you could throw it away like that. How you could throw away something a person can get once, if they're lucky. And the only answer I can come up with is that... you don't have a Heart anymore."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but Dumber is right. You wasted something that most people don't get. That most people spend their entire lives looking for! And for what? Cause she wouldn't get in the kitchen and make you a sandwich!? That sounds..." Kirito scoffed and shook his head in disgust. "Even I know that's sick."

"I want to kill you for thinking what you thought," Mercury growled. Darkness flared on his heels. "Because I would never do it. I'm pretty much the baseline for human decency. Hell, I'm below it. But even I'd never do what you did." He took his foot off Grimlock's chest. "So you're sick in the head. You need help, because anyone worse than me has to be nuts. Anyone taking a look at your fashion sense could tell that."

"W-what?" Grimlock asked, as if these were the first words to actually get through to him.

"Oh, come on? That's a cheap hit! Too easy!" Kirito shouted, disgusted that Mercury would insult anyone like that.

"You could do better?" Mercury growled, irritated.

Kirito glared at him for a few moments before throwing his hands up in defeat. He turned towards the murderer and half heartedly shouted, "Grimlock, get up. And this time you're not going to fold just because you look like John Lennon joined the Mafia!"

Grimlock doubled over in tears.

"Case rested," Kirito said with a gesture, waving his hand around before bowing.

"Merc," Emerald said, pulling him away. "What was that about? You never get worked up like that."

"Oh, you know," Mercury said, casting a glance over at Jaune, who was still glaring with disgust at Grimlock. He turned his gaze back to Emerald and smiled. "I didn't like what he was saying. It was wrong."

"And you know that how?" Emerald asked mockingly.

Merc shrugged. "Doesn't matter, does it?"

Emerald stopped and glared at Mercury. Half joking, she growled out, "I'm going to kill you if you don't tell me." She began to draw her weapons.

"No really – I mean. No, it's..." He looked over and saw Jaune staring back. The blonde's head gestured at the green haired girl before he turned and reached down to grab Grimlock. Merc shut his eyes and sighed. "Em, look, I just – I can't tell you yet. I know I should, but I can't."

Emerald glared him down, red eyes filled with confusion about what could possibly be so bad that Mercury would not want her to know about it. "Whatever, Merc." She waved him off. "You'll just tell me later."

"Guys!" Their heads turned to the side, cutting off their conversation, and saw a swirling Darkness surrounding Grimlock, an army of Heartless tearing him to shreds as he began to scream for mercy, to be rescued by those he had disgusted the most. Jaune, Yang, and the others had been forced back by the force of the wind now and were guarding themselves against whatever might come next.

"What the hell!?" Schmidt screamed, scrabbling backwards until he and his former guildmates were holding one another tight. A bright, white light flashed in front of them before turning a dull pink that continued to emanate from the ground, forming a cage that surrounded their rescuers and Grimlock. "Where did those things come from!?"

"Heartless!" Kirito shouted, voice straining against the wind.

"Really?!" Yang shouted back. "And here I thought it was fairies!"

"Fairies? In a VRMMO? Ugh, just kill me now!" Asuna snapped.

Jaune glared at the swirling darkness as it began to slowly dissipate, leaving behind a single, giant silhouette. "Oh, that's not good," he muttered before the creature took a heavy step forward, and the cloud of Shadows disappeared completely.

The monster was about ten feet tall, and fit in perfectly with the haunted forest that grew darker around them. It had long, branching sprouts coming out of a head with a face looking like a jaggedly drawn Jack O'Lantern. Long, thin ropes hung from the branches, thirteen of them, each holding a body with the Heartless symbol on its chest that dangled there and tossed about with the monster's sudden movements. The creature had a tree trunk for a body, the symbol of the Heartless carved expertly into its chest. A dozen long, thin roots coiled together to form the creature's legs, and a few vines dangled from the branches as well, tiny hands forming the ends of each. Slowly, the heads of each body hanging from the branches turned towards Jaune, Kirito, and Mercury first. Jaune knew that those gazes gave every one of them the same thought of a single word – Iscariot. The hands of the bodies shot up, summoning silvery energy blasts that arced towards the warriors, one from each body.

Kirito and Mercury were quick to dodge, even using their speed to jump out of the way they made it with just fractions of a second before the blasts could reach them. Jaune had speed because of the Keyblade, but he knew what he was good at. He was a tank, a man with an incredibly powerful Aura that could take any hit and, with a little luck, let him send it right back. He raised the Keyblade in front of his body, letting the four energy blasts flying his way catch on its similarly colored body. The Keyblade naturally summoned a thin Reflect wall that sent the energy flying back. The Heartless shook and the many bodies arced in wild and unpredictable ways that caused them to easily dodge the rebounded attacks.

Yang took that moment of movement to start her own attack, by leaping over Jaune and charging flames across her fists. "You should make like a tree... and leaf!" she shouted, launching the flames down at the creature. The explosion crashed against its body, but it quickly disappeared and the monster appeared as if it had taken minimal damage. In fact, there was a small lattice of vines where the attack had collided, the arms of the creature sewn together in the form of a shield.

"Really? That joke!?" Kirito shouted as he sprinted around, Asuna doing the same from the other side to form a pincer. "There is always a time and place for _Back to the Future_ , and this is not it! You didn't even get the quote right!"

"Back to the what?" Yang asked, completely confused by the name.

Kirito's response was tears as he began his attack, black saber glinting as it reflected what little moonlight there was streaming down from the sky. Its edge sliced through one of the ropes, causing the body to fall uselessly to the ground. Asuna's blade pierced another rope, dropping the body next to its counterpart. The two warriors were in the air, now, and could not dodge the lightning fast blows of the vine claws slamming into them, unmaking the shield faster than Jaune could have expected and sending the two tumbling across the ground, thin red marks across their shoulders.

Emerald whirled around from behind, summoning up some image in front of the Heartless that it lashed out at to only hit empty air. Her blades, dressed in flames, were soon buried in the Heartless' back and it shrieked, thrashing wildly and managing to throw her away. Trailing behind her, however, was a pair of long chains connected to her guns. Mercury leaped into the air and grabbed onto her, landing in a run around the creature. "Swooning to be in my arms, Em?" the man asked with a grin.

"Can you run anything other than your mouth?" she asked back with a smirk that said she had found it more entertaining than annoying.

Jaune and Yang were busy drawing the monster's attention away from the two runners, using light attacks to force it to lock onto them even as the chains coiled around its legs. Jaune jumped softly over one of the bodies, slashing a silver beam away as he did. He saw another preparing to take down Yang and shouted out a warning. Her fist collided with the beam as she swung around to it, and the energy flew back to cut another hangman down. "This is going better than I'd worried," Kirito said as he ran up and readied his weapon for another attack, causing the blade to glow a vibrant blue before he jumped forward.

He was knocked out of his attack path by an ashen corpse slamming into his body. Jaune was frozen in surprise that the corpse had stood up, to the point he didn't even register another one sneaking up behind him and bringing its gaping maw down to bite down into his shoulder. Jaune roared in pain and tried to pull it off his back, though it seemed it was really stuck there. It wasn't until Yang ran up and crushed its head with one hand that he was able to tear the body, smoking with Darkness, off and into the forest where it disappeared. "Okay, so the bodies come to life when cut down. Great," Jaune said, rubbing his shoulder for a second. He looked over at Yang. "Thanks."

Yang smirked and shrugged. "Couldn't leave you hanging."

"I think I'm spending too much time around you. That hurt less than the bite did," Jaune said.

Yang smirked. "Oh, you're getting a sense of humor now?"

Jaune laughed at that. "Not a good one, if that's the case."

"Dumb and Dumber! Stop flirting," Kirito snapped angrily, "and help us fight!"

Jaune and Yang traded a glance. "Flirting?" Jaune asked, his voice forced even to keep it from cracking. He wasn't sure if this was funny. Or even a joke.

"You think this is flirting?" Yang wondered aloud. She laughed. "If I was flirting, it'd be a lot more direct."

Jaune chuckled nervously.. "Uh... Right," He muttered before returning to the fight. Jaune slashed his Keyblade at the nearest Corpse, Keyblade catching on a large hammer made of wood that the creature suddenly pulled out from the ground. He summoned a spray of Frost magic to his weapon before he jumped back a half step, causing the spell to explode and freeze the Heartless in place. He turned on his heel and, with a powerful two handed blow, shattered it. A glowing Heart spiraled towards the sky blinking out against the stars.

 _That was awkward_ , Jaune thought to himself before diving through the icy remains to avoid a volley of silver blasts that slammed into the ground where he'd been standing. He rolled to his feet. Flirting? Him? He – well, that was – It's – He mentally sighed. Pyrrha had told him to find someone, but was he ready? He mentally slapped himself for forgetting the real question: Was he really flirting!? When another monster lunged at him and he barely noticed it, he decided to ponder such things later.

Yang watched him struggle with the thoughts for a few moments, laughing to herself as he floundered with the idea of Yang. She knew that, even if she ever did develop feelings for him, he was too wrapped up in Pyrrha to notice, even still. He wouldn't notice anyone for a while longer. She rushed past him and blocked a blow from the vines that was slashing at him before he could notice. "Hey, stop acting like a you've seen a ghost and fight, Jaune," she commanded her partner.

He nodded, shaking himself out of his thoughts, and charged the tree. "Got a plan?" Mercury asked as he moved to Jaune's side, the two of them dodging silver blasts together. Mercury still had Emerald in his arms, the chains tightening around the Heartless' legs even tighter.

"Um... I'm working on it," he said. He glanced at the Heartless and studied it for a few seconds. "Okay, start of the plan. We'll cut down the corpses and destroy them. That'll take out one of its weapons. You guys trip it and we'll figure things out from there."

"On it," Emerald said, and Mercury sprinted off with her.

"Kirito, we're on cut down duty!" Jaune shouted, readying his Keyblade over his shoulder before jumping at one side of the tree to cut down the remaining corpses.

"Punch time!" Yang shouted in excitement, slamming her fists together. Her hair exploded into flames before she jumped forward to attack the monsters falling from the tree. One, two, three all disappeared in flashes of flame before she twisted between attacking vines. On the other side, Kirito spun around to cut down four more that Asuna skewered. "Only three more now!"

The corpses dropped at that explanation, landing on their feet underneath the people who had tried to cut them down. Silver lights shot up at Jaune and Kirito, sending them crashing into the dangling branches. The vines coiled around them and held them tight so they could not escape. "Hey!" Jaune snapped as he struggled against the tightening vines.

"We've got this!" Mercury shouted as the chains coiled for the last time around the Iscariot's legs. He put Emerald down and gestured at her with a bow. "We're waiting on you."

Emerald rolled her eyes and pulled on the chains, snapping the monster's legs together and pulling its feet out from beneath it. The monster crashed face first into the ground with a roar, though it refused to release Jaune or Kirito. Still, some of the branches did crush a Corpse, so there was that at least. Emerald whipped her chains and a burst of yellow Lightning channeled down the length and intot he legs of the Heartless, as well as into Jaune and Kirito's helpless bodies.

"OW! Idiots, are you trying to kill us!?" Kirito snapped angrily.

"Yes!" Mercury shouted from the fog.

"And me?" Jaune inquired.

"No!" Emerald exclaimed.

"Just get out of there," Asuna growled in exasperation as she cut the vines off of Kirito. Yang ran up and gripped the vines holding Jaune before tearing them to shreds with her robotic hand. She nodded at Jaune, then turned and punched straight through the head of a Corpse trying to sneak up behind her. She jumped over and crossed her arms in front of her, deflecting the powerful silver beam that would have hit the woman helping Kirito to his feet.

Jaune pushed himself up, and raised his Keyblade above his head. "All at once! Now!" He jumped at the Heartless, coating his blade with a Gravity spell. It exploded around the Heartless, forcing it to remain on the ground and halting its progress to stand up. Next came Yang, landing atop it with both feet coated in ice that froze the Heartless to the ground. From there, it was simple work for the six warriors to tear it apart blow by blow. Branches shattered from the struggling, frozen form and disappeared into Darkness. Vines cracked and melted into shadow. The trunk split in two, a long, streaking, diagonal break that came about when Mercury, in an incredibly powerful hammer kick, slammed both heels into the monster's midsection after Yang had landed an overhead, two handed punch in the same location.

The ice hissed, steam escaping through the fracture as the pressure built up was too great. Physical shadows leaked from the ice, until, eventually, the wall exploded and shards of frost flew around the battlefield, forming a bright white snowfall that caught the little light in the area to form beautiful crystal stars among the warriors. Ice drifted slowly down around them, Jaune and the others looking around in wonder. "Beautiful," Asuna muttered quietly.

"Guys -" Yolko began. Their heads turned to her, at which point she slowly raised her finger to point between them, where Grimlock's Heartless would have been.

The six spun around, and froze. Standing in the ice, staring up at the sky with tears drifting down her cheeks, was the image of a woman. She was dressed in green armor, and had brown hair done in a short ponytail. It was held out of her eyes by a tiny clip. "Thank you, for setting me -"

She was cut off when Kirito's sword slammed into her chest. He and Asuna began to scream in terror, as did Yolko, Caynz, and Schmidt. All five sprinted off into the forest, their screeching following them.

"Um... Bye!" Jaune shouted to them. He didn't get a response.

"Huh. They took that well," Mercury said dryly.

"Yeah." Jaune looked at the woman, who was staring after the screams with an annoyed glare. "Griselda?"

She looked over, clearly still annoyed and expecting to be annoyed more. "You're not going to scream too?"

"Are you kidding? We've seen ghosts before," Yang said as she crossed her arms. "My sister's mom was a weird one, but if that didn't scare me away..." She shrugged nonchalantly.

Griselda blinked once in surprise. "You've seen other ghosts?"

"A few people we miss," Jaune muttered sadly, clenching his fist at his side. He buried the Keyblade in the ground and leaned his weight against it as red hair filled his vision.

Mercury looked over at Emerald for a moment, then down at his own hands. "We've had a few near misses where we almost saw the other side ourselves," he muttered coolly. He shut his fists and stuffed them in his pockets. He looked up and grinned. "Makes for an exciting life, though."

Emerald nodded. "Yeah, it does," she said with a concerned smile. He was acting weird, still. He was never this... deep, thoughtful, or meaningful when he spoke. She saw Jaune giving Mercury a weird look and decided to file this away for later. It seemed there was some sort of destiny that kept drawing the blondes and them to the same place, so she could confront him about this after giving Merc a chance to speak.

"Well... I'll tell them you say hi, if you tell those idiots I said thank you," Griselda offered with a smile.

"Those idiots?" Jaune asked, looking over at where Kirito and Asuna had run off with Griselda's former guildmates. "I'm sad to say that we will _definitely_ see them again, so sure."

"Summer Rose and Pyrrha Nikos," Yang said. She looked over at Em and Merc. "Anybody else?"

Emerald bit her lip. Emerald may have loved her like an older sister, but she had to admit that Griselda definitely wasn't going where Cinder was, so... "Nobody I remember,"

"Ha! Nah, my dad's in the other place," Mercury said with a quick gesture at the other ground.

"Well, goodbye, then. I'll say hello if I can," Griselda said, giving a soft smile before she let go... and disappeared. The snow falling around them disappeared completely, melting away and leaving the offworlders alone.

They stood in silence for a little while, staring at the place the woman had been standing. "So... I guess that's everything," Jaune muttered. He stood up straight and the Keyblade disappeared from the ground. His eyes remained fixed on where Griselda had been for another moment, before going down to where Grimlock's Heartless had died. A flash of Dark anger crossed his features as he thought about the man, his insanity and evil. "He got what he deserved."

Yang looked over. "Does anyone deserve to become a Heartless?" she asked simply. "Maybe he deserved to die, but..." She looked at the ground, too. "No. I don't think so."

"Agree to disagree." That one was Emerald. "I've done a lot wrong, but I'd never do this. I'd kill if someone I loved..."

Mercury looked over, not saying anything. Shadowy scythes and death. She couldn't take it. Not yet. She needed time and space from the event. He'd talk with Blue. He'd figure this out.

"You're sounding like me," Jaune said, a grim joke that made no one laugh. He looked down. "You guys have been a lot of help lately. So thank you."

"No problem," Mercury muttered.

Yang reached into her pocket and pulled out her Scroll. "You guys still carry one of these?" she asked.

Em glanced over and pulled hers out, flashing the screen at the blonde. "Good." She swiped her screen and some information appeared on Emerald's screen. "Call us if you need any help. Our ship can pick up any call!"

Emerald and Mercury flinched in surprise. "Wh-what?" Mercury asked.

"Hey, our friends need some way to talk with us," Jaune explained with a grin. He held out his hand to Mercury. "Right, Buddy?"

 _ **S M H S**_

OJ still couldn't believe he'd done it. He'd finally found a way into the Realm of Darkness, which meant he was one step closer to finally getting back to Pyrrha! And now that he knew he needed his fellow Arc's help to get there, he might as well already have that golden Kingdom Key in his hand! And with a Keyblade that strong, there's no way he wouldn't get everything else on the list, lickety split. He was ready to go home – to his real home, where Pyrrha waited for him even today.

He stared again at the book resting on his table, thinking back on everything he'd learned from it. The Door to Truth was not unlike the Door to Darkness, n many ways. Both required a trade, purest Light for purest Darkness. The book called it 'The Law of Equivalent Exchange,' but OJ knew that the important part of every rule was the exclusion. Keyblades were one of those exclusions, unlocking gates that wanted to stay shut. It had taken a few days of figuring out, but now he was sure he knew how to change the strategy for opening the Gate of Truth into one that would shift him into the Realm of Darkness. And, once he had the Kingdom Key D, right back into the Realm of Light. Easy.

He pulled out his Scroll and checked the time. What time was it right now on Aincrad? With how long it had been since they'd seen each other last, he was pretty sure that Jaune would be wrapping up right about now with whatever was going on there. In which case – OJ pushed himself up to his feet and pulled a Pumpkin Pete bar out of his pocket. With his free hand, he summoned up a Corridor of Darkness that linked up to Aincrad, where Jaune was if his Heart was right. He took a bite of the bar and walked through, letting it drift shut behind him.

It took a short time for him to travel through the hallway comprised of Darkness. He was connecting two worlds that were moving through time at different speeds, after all. When he had first started, this had been hell on his motion sickness. Purples and blacks swirling around him like a sky moving past at an incredible rate. He hadn't puked since before he had a Keyblade, but he'd come close the very first time. Now that he'd had the time to acclimate to this walled off portion of the Realm of Darkness, he had no problems. When he used Jaune's Keyblade to open those walls so he could get into the Realm of Darkness, he expected it would be a rough trip. He'd been preparing himself mentally for it for days.

Speaking of that coming, tumultuous journey, OJ saw the portal explode open in front of him. He took another bite of his bar and bounded forward into... a dark forest. "Wow, and here I was hoping for a change of scenery from Vale's forests," he muttered from a mouth filled with food. He looked around for his counterpart and Yang, quickly catching sight of the blonde hair contrasting with the black forest. "Jaune! Yang!" He raised his free hand and waved at them. "Guys! Hey!"

"OJ!" Jaune shouted excitedly as he turned and saw his counterpart. He rushed forward and high fived his counterpart. "What are you doing here?"

"I figured it out. How to get to the realm of Darkness," he responded. He brought his bar up for the final bite before burning the wrapper away with magical, black flames. "I stole some books from some bad guys all around the World, and I've got it. I just need your help."

"Of course," Yang said, no hesitation in her voice as she walked up as well. She took a breath. "How can we help?"

OJ smiled at her, gratitude flooding his features. "You just need to come with me! I'll explain on the way!" He turned and opened a portal of Darkness. He cast a glance at the others, a breathless grin on his face. "Ready?"

"Through that thing?" Yang asked, grimacing. "Aren't those dangerous?"

"Only if you don't wear one of those jackets or..." Jaune slapped the button on his left pauldron and disappeared in a momentary flash of Light. He reappeared as it died, now clad entirely in golden and white armor. Black leather formed from magic covered his body, itself covered by the metal of gold and white crafted out of his Keyblade itself. His bracers flared out at the elbows to form sharp edges he could use as weapons themselves. His shoulder armor was tight to his body, though with a slightly boxy edge to it. His chest armor was tighter than what he usually wore and faded from gold to white as it went down. His legs were covered in segmented, knight like armor of a white silver that led into golden and black boots of armor. His head was covered by a black, Heart shaped visor connected to his armor with a pair of long, golden ears sticking up at the back.

"Hey, Pumpkin Pete!" OJ shouted, jumping up and down like a little kid as he pointed at the armor. "That's so cool! Do you think I could get some of that stuff?"

"That's what I thought, too! Pumpkin Pete!" Jaune shouted, sounding just as much like a five year old as his counterpart. "And I know Sora and Professor Ozpin would make you some if you ask them yourself!"

"Awesome, I can't wai -"

"How does this help _me_ ," Yang clarified. She gestured at her own outfit and then at Jaune and OJ. "Clearly I don't have the same resources available to me – you know, armor made out of a Keyblade or magic Dark clothes."

"Right! Right. Here you go!" OJ held up his Keyblade and focused on it for a moment until it exploded and reshaped itself into an empty, gyroscopic glass sphere with a handle on the inside. "I mean, we'll have to push you, but this works."

"This feels like a joke," Yang muttered.

"Nope," OJ said plainly before tapping the sphere. A door popped open on the side. "You get to roll in to our destination in style!"

Yang glared at him before she burst out laughing. "Ha! Hahaha! Roll in! I love it!" She walked forward and clapped OJ's shoulder with her robotic fist. "Ah, okay. Only cause of the joke."

"That's why I made it!" OJ explained, scratching the back of his head and grinning hseepishly. "Just thought of the worst pun I could make!"

"You're tempting me to not do it," she said, halfway through the door already.

"Whoopsdidn'thearthat!" Jaune shouted hurriedly before slamming the door shut and causing her to fall in. Yang yelped before falling face first into the floor of the sphere. "Uh... Sorry, Yang!"

The blonde pushed ehrself around so she was on her back. "I'm going to kill you," she said plainly, eyes red.

Jaune and OJ palled before Jaune said, "I'm well aware..." He gestured at the doorway. "Erm... After you!"

OJ bowed slightly. "Of course, Sir." Then he motioned with his hand and the ball began to move away. He looked over at Yang. "And don't worry about getting back here. I'll open a portal for the two of you as soon as everything is ready and you can head back here for your ship lickety split!"

"Fast," Yang muttered. She pushed herself up to her feet and looked over at Jaune. "You coming, Bunny Boy?"

"I thought you were the -"

"No!" Yang snapped, the red eyes burning brighter and her hair turning to fire. "I'm going to kill you for real if you bring that up to anyone else!"

Jaune's eyes widened in terror behind his mask. "I, uh... Yes, Ma'am." He bounded after the ball and his black coated counter. "I won't do it again..."

OJ reached inside his coat. "Hey, look! Another Black Coat!" he said, waving it at Yang.

"Oh, I knew you were evil," Yang jokingly snarled.

As they passed through the gate, far above in the Gummi ship a phone was ringing. If Yang had entered a moment later, perhaps her Scroll would have picked it up. Instead, it just rang and rang and rang. Until the call ended on its own.

 _ **S M H S**_

Ozpin tapped his foot in time with the ringing of the Scroll held next to his ear, though with every second he was getting more and more off time. He was worried. Nervous. _Terrified_. "Mister Arc, Miss Xiao Long please pick up... _Please_..."

He listened to the third to last ring and a single thought went through his mind: they are simply in battle. On the second to last ring it was wondering if they were injured and needed help. On the last he felt it in his Heart... They were already with OJ. He slammed the scroll down before the final ring came to an end. "I need to find Sora," he whispered to himself, surging to his feet. He slapped his chair out of the way and left his Scroll plugged in to the communications center as he sprinted off into the school. Sora... Sora... Where did the young man spend most of his time at this school!? Ozpin cursed under his breath at everything around him, be it the school for being new or himself for not knowing this by now. Sora... he would spend his time in the training center, perhaps? Ozpin sprinted through the hallways, growing ever more manic with every step. The universe itself hinged on him finding Sora _now_. He turned a corner and threw the doors open to find the training room empty, save for the inactive robots that would be used for training. "Dammit... Qrow isn't here, he would have no one to train with!"

Ozpin spun on his heel and sprinted towards his next destination. The mess hall. God knew that the boy had a... disgusting appetite. He whirled around to another intersection, fists clenched so tight that they were cramping. He didn't even bother throwing the doors open, instead just slamming into them and pushing through like a madman. "Sora!" No. Nothing. Just an unwashed mountain of plates on a table covered with food. Messy eater indeed. Ozpin roared in rage and turned, slamming his knuckles into the wall. "Damn!" He took a breath to recompose himself. He needed to be calm, to be sure. Anything less would make him lose focus, and even when his task was looking for Sora that was never a good move. He took off his glasses and ran a hand through his hair before placing them back on his nose. Time to begin again.

He ran for the only other place he could think the boy was – the Hall of Histories. The boy had accepted his friends were long gone, but he had spent much time on remembering them on his own. The other places were better guesses for mid-day, but they had not panned out. This was it. Sora would be there. Ozpin reached the door and pulled it open. "Sora -"

"... and they're all – Oz!" Sora turned as the door opened. He was sitting on the ground, cross legged, with his body facing a carving of seven warriors each with their own distinct Keyblade. One was himself, and the others his old friends. Ozpin let his eyes travel for a moment until he caught sight of himself standing with his six first students, a woman with a dark and terrifying shadow beside him. He looked away from Salem as quickly as he had looked towards her. "What's up?"

"Sora, I fear something terrible is about to happen," the ancient warrior stated. The cold, aching fear in the man's voice caught Sora's attention and he shivered. "I have been trying to contact Mister Arc and Miss Xiao Long for some time, but I have yet to reach them."

"Why do you need to talk with them, Oz?" Sora wondered.

Ozpin sighed. "The Other Jaune. His plan to move on to the next timeline will work, but it will not end well," the old man explained, his forehead creasing until it was one long wrinkle above his emerald glasses. "His plan will end with the annihilation of everything, Sora, and I need to warn Mister Arc and Miss Xiao Long before they help him."

"Maybe he doesn't know!" Sora said hopefully. He took a step forward and held his fists in front of him. "Maybe – No, he _will_ stop when we tell him. He's like Jaune, after all. That means he's good."

"I would like to believe that as well, Sora," Ozpin said quietly.

Sora was quiet for a moment. "You want me to go track them down and stop whatever it is that they're doing here, huh?" he asked as he crossed his arms and gazed at the ground. He looked up and nodded solemnly, determined to fix this. "Well, I guess that I better start looking for them then."

Ozpin sighed in relief. "Yes, of course." He sighed. "And I thought we were going to teach..."

"Well, it's a new world. Just gotta wait, Oz," Sora said, placing his hands behind his head and grinning. "It's not ending any time soon, after all."

Ozpin smiled softly and nodded, letting the young man run past him. Sora jumped in the air as he ran away, turning to wave before he landed and began to backpedal. "See ya after I've cleared this all up, Oz!" And with that he turned around again, running off to save the universe.

"Always bringing hope, Sora," Ozpin chuckled to himself, surprised by how at ease he was. All because of the boy. "If you and Miss Rose can teach someone how to do the same, I think the Keyblade has made its best choices yet."


	16. The Mask Comes Off

**AN:**

 **Howdy! How are all y'all? I'm pretty good, having a lot of fun. I can't believe I'm _this_ close to graduating. Just a couple of months and college is over for me. Seems like just yesterday it started.**

 **Anyways, I'm happy to present the turn of this story. This is where the plot really begins, and I hope you like it!**

 **Responses:**

 **To Gamelover41592: Of course I'd respond with the Hercules quote! I'm glad that you made it first, actually. As for if Yang is right or wrong, it's you'll have to see.**

 **To Remnant7: Yep, Sora's first action chapter in this one. He doesn't just destroy the villain, as the villain isn't trying to win the fight so much as escape after Sora shows up, though.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: The tests went well, thanks. I'm glad you liked the Iscariot. It was around Palm Sunday when I was writing last, so I had Easter and Holy Thursday on the brain. I hope the Demon Tower's appearance when it happens is good, because it won't be a main Heartless that shows up a lot.**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoy!**

 _ **Chapter 16: The Mask Comes Off**_

"And here we are!" OJ shouted, excitement pouring out of his voice like waves. He gestured around them at the wide open, dusty world. His face was eager, painted with the need to complete their task here and move on as fast as possible.

"What is this place..?" Yang asked as the door of her transport opened and she was allowed to enter the open space after their short journey. The world was all brown and the sky a sharp, clean blue. There were mountains, destroyed and ravaged by huge displays of power that looked more ancient than the world could possibly be. And strangest of all? The huge field of Keyblades, dead and devoid of power all around them.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think this is all that came back from Sora's time when everything was reborn," OJ explained, crossing his arms and looking around. His gaze returned to his companions. "I know you've both heard the stories from him."

"The Keyblade Graveyard..." Jaune and Yang murmured, both filled with awe and fear. This place was beyond important. The Keyblade War, Sora's jump to the future, and the death of an entire Universe... all on this same plot of land. Yang walked over to a dead Keyblade and pried it from the ground, examining the Key that reminded her of Bumblebee's ignition key and the sword that Sora had made after losing his Keyblade. "Fenrir." She looked around. "Sleeping Lion, Guardian Soul. It really is..."

"How's this possible?" Jaune asked OJ.

The black coated blonde shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe this world is too important. It survived after the first Keyblade War, maybe it survived the second for the same reason?" OJ suggested. He walked over to the sphere his Keyblade had transformed into and shifted it back into blade form in his hand. He turned back to Jaune before adding, "Whatever reason that may be."

"Maybe it has to do with all of these," Yang suggested, still brandishing the rusted Fenrir Keyblade she'd found. She grinned evilly. "Maybe that's the key."

Jaune snickered while OJ groaned. "Wait, did you just laugh?" OJ asked his counterpart.

"I... Ugh, I really have been spending too much time around Yang," Jaune muttered, placing one armored hand over his helmet's visor. "What's next? Am I going to drive motorcycles, flirt, and crash Gummi Ships?"

"Hey, you know that was you!" Yang retorted, a smile on her face.

Jaune dismissed his armor and smiled back. "So, what do we need to do?" he asked OJ after a second of thought. He turned to the other Keyblade wielder. "I'm ready for anything."

"Then let's get started," OJ said, pumping his fist in front of him.

Yang hefted the dead Keyblade over her shoulder and waited for whatever was coming next. "Give me a show. I don't want to be bored, okay?"

"Yeah, that's what we'll worry about," OJ said dryly. He sighed and shook his head. "Okay. I'm _pretty sure_ that this will work."

"Only pretty sure?" Jaune wondered cautiously.

"... Really pretty sure?" OJ suggested, giving a sheepish grin as he scratched the back of his head. After a moment he stopped and sighed, admitting 'Really pretty sure' wasn't where he wanted to be either. "Okay, it's never been tested, but it's the only way this can happen. Jaune, do you know how to make a Portal of Light?"

Jaune didn't respond. "Yeah, I didn't think so," OJ muttered before biting his cheek. "Okay, so, it's a lot more natural to make a Corridor of Darkness because it's what connects the worlds. A Portal of Light uses the Keyblade to tunnel through it instead. You just focus on using the Keyblade to open a door. You just have to focus all your light onto it."

"And why do you need me to make it?" Jaune asked after committing the concept to memory.

"Corridors to Darkness – well, not all of them can get into the Realm of Darkness," OJ explained after a moment of thought. "At least not in this new version of the World. Since Sora was in control of the **χ-** blade when everything came back, there's a wall of Light around the Realm of Darkness. It's impossible to get in."

"Unless you have a Portal of Light, one made by a Keyblade strong enough to pierce this wall you're talking about," Jaune finished. He summoned the Keyblade to his hand and held it out. "Okay, so what do I do?"

"You make one inside of my Corridor of Darkness," OJ explained. He punched out in front of him as he continued, saying, "Breaking through the wall and letting me use my Corridor to get there."

Jaune looked down at the Keyblade and held it steady for a few moments. A wellspring of confidence suddenly appeared in his gut and his grip on the weapon grew tight as he looked back up at his counterpart. "Well, I'm willing to try."

OJ smiled, relieved. "Thanks, guys. I really appreciate this, you know?"

Jaune nodded solemnly, knowing what was at stake here. OJ deserved to be happy. "Let's do this."

OJ turned and held his hand out, Darkness coating his palm for a moment before opening an oblong black and violet portal at the center of the crossroads they stood at. OJ let his hand fall and turned to Jaune. "There we go. You're up."

Jaune wordlessly raised the Keyblade until it pointed at the portal. Finally, he'd help OJ get to where he needed to go. He was strong enough to do it, and strong enough to help. The tip of the Keyblade swirled with bright white Light, sparks and wisps chasing each other in a sphere that grew to the size of his head. This door would open and maybe it'd help him, too. Heal, knowing that some version of himself would find what they were both looking for. He hoped so. The ball exploded and a thin strand of Light shot into the Corridor. Slowly, white and soft pink light began to grow within and form a doorway of its own.

"Yes! Yes, that's it!" OJ shouted in encouragement, his eyes widening in excitement. Under his breath, he muttered to himself, "Pyrrha... I'm coming. It won't be long now until I finally see you again!"

Jaune continued to focus on the growing door, forcing more energy into its creation. He could feel in his bones that the Keyblade was nearly done as the pink and white approached the darkened black and purple of the Corridor's edge. The Light and Dark energy pulsed and shuddered out of time with one another, burning more and more until, finally, the pulses of the Darkness and Light came together and the energy grew into a single corridor filled with Light but shaped entirely by Darkness. He let the Keyblade fall to his side, breathing heavily from the exertion of tunneling through the wall of Light.

"Jaune, Yang! Stop!"

Everyone turned to the source of the voice, shocked as Sora landed heavily with the Master Keeper out, standing in the road perpendicular to their own. He grit his teeth. "I'm too late..." he muttered. His eyes drifted towards the ground, fear and anger filling them.

"Sora?" Jaune asked, completely perplexed at how the Keyblade Master was there. "H-how did you find us!?"

"Yang's Scroll has a tracker in it," Sora said, not focusing on the question. Jaune and Yang's eyes widened at that betrayal of trust, but Sora moved past it without thought. He turned to OJ, face far more serious than Jaune or Yang ever thought it could appear. "I'm guessing you're the OJ I've heard so much about."

"I guess I am..." OJ said, confused by everything going on. He took a half step back and glared at Sora, brow set heavy and a cautious frown touching his features. "Why are you here? Saying goodbye? Well I can't leave this universe yet, so you still have some time..."

Sora bit his cheek and looked over at the portal, still thrumming along stably. He pointed at it and locked eyes with OJ. "I can't let you go through that portal."

Jaune jumped forward, grabbing Sora and turning him around. "What!? That's crazy, you can't just do that!" he shouted, keeping his hand tight on Sora's shoulder. Jaune scoffed in disbelief. "Sora, it's the only chance to see Pyrrha again, the only chance for him to feel like he belongs! I won't let you take that from him!"

"You don't know the price, Jaune," Sora retorted, suddenly sounding like an adult berating a child. A child who was older than him, Jaune wanted to point out. He didn't, though. The Keyblade Master was serious, focused despite the worry plastered across his face.

"What price? Tell us!" Jaune finally demanded. "What could be so bad that we can't just help him out?!"

"It would be the end of the world, Jaune!" Sora shouted suddenly, effortlessly brushing Jaune's tight grip from his shoulder. The world grew quiet, silence spreading across the rebuilt graveyard.

"How do you know?" Yang asked worriedly, finally breaking the silence.

"Ozpin. Apparently if he opens up another hole or whatever, that's it. The universe he jumped out of is all Darkness, and he'd jump into the next universe's realm of Darkness. He said something about black holes and vacuums... but the important part is that every single world that we just fought to bring back... It would be gone. Turned into Nothing. He'd move on, and everything would be gone. Dead."

Jaune took a step back. "I... No. He didn't know!" Jaune shouted. He turned to OJ, whose eyes were locked on the ground. His fists were clenched, empty at his sides. "OJ, tell me that you didn't know!"

"No... I didn't know," OJ said sullenly, his eyes never leaving his toes.

Yang sighed in relief. "Okay, good. Then you're not going to -"

"But I'm not going to stop." A wall of Light flashed around them, locking Jaune and Yang in a cage with OJ. OJ's eyes moved slowly up to meet those of his counterpart. Sora was yelling and slamming his fists against the barrier, trying to get in. But he couldn't.

Jaune's voice was hollow when he finally asked, "Y-you're what?"

"They're lying, Jaune, or they don't know what they're talking about," OJ began, clenched jaw straining with anger. "It's my only chance, you know that! My only chance to be happy, _your_ only chance to be happy! And... And you can still come with me! Think about it – Pyrrha! We can see Pyrrha again!"

Jaune swallowed. He was horrified to admit it, but... But he couldn't say it wasn't tempting. To see Pyrrha again had been the entire reason he had even worked with Salem all those months ago. He'd been willing to trade his entire life for it. Hell, he'd been willing to trade every life in the universe for it.

Jaune felt sick to his stomach that he would even consider it again. His friends, his family... Jaune took a wobbly step forward, Keyblade held at the ready. "I – I would never, ever, _ever_ do that. You can't be serious? You can't do it!"

OJ stared at Jaune for a few moments, features blank and confused. Then, as if he had come to a conclusion, he turned his gaze on Yang. "I see. You're the reason he's betraying Pyrrha! You're the reason he won't help me find Pyrrha!"

Jaune flinched and stumbled backwards. Was he... scared of his counterpart? "What are you talking about?" Jaune asked, voice quivering. He raised his Keyblade in front of him defensively. "Betray Pyrrha? She wouldn't want this. You're the one betraying Pyrrha!"

"You wouldn't know!" Then he charged, No Name appearing in his hand. Jaune flinched again, and raised the Keyblade in front of him, but he wasn't the target.

The black Keyblade flashed in its arc towards Yang, forcing the blonde brawler to move faster than she ever had before. The black blade cut down in an overhead blow that shattered the ground where she'd been standing. She rolled past her assailant and her stunned, terrified partner, then up to her feet. She grabbed the Keyblade in two hands and turned on her heel to deliver a massive strike to OJ. The Keyblade Wielder merely turned and, with his Keyblade that still oozed energy, shattered the dead weapon as if it were made of glass. The cold fury in OJ's eyes warned of the immediate next attack as he lashed out with his free hand and an explosive wave of Darkness shot out. The shattered remains of the dead Keyblade flew at Yang and slammed into her, carving thin, deep cuts into her Aura. She threw up her arms and activated Ember Celica to keep her face safe, but it was right then that his Keyblade came up and slammed into her arms and chin. She soared into the air, momenarily stunned. "I'll just kill you, I guess," OJ whispered as he appeared in the air above her and readied his Keyblade. "Then he'll see he can't stay here!"

The Keyblade came down, only to collide with the Kingdom Key. Jaune grunted in pain as the blow, stronger than any he'd had to face yet, slammed into his guard. The force of the blow forced him to collide with Yang, sending the both of them tumbling to the ground in a heap.

Jaune disentangled himself and raised the Keyblade in front of himself again. "What are you talking about?" he asked as OJ landed softly on his feet.

"Your _friends..._ " OJ spat. He took slow steps towards Jaune, the Keyblade's teeth dragging along the ground behind him. His blue eyes were icy cold and filled with murder. "They don't want what is best for us... Yang, Sora, Ruby, Ren, Nora... They're holding you back from your destiny! From the woman you love!"

Jaune didn't have any response. He could only rush OJ, knowing it was the only chance to stop this. Yang pushed herself slowly to her feet behind him and winced, clutching at her chin. It was bruised. He had bruised it _through_ her massive Aura. She was certain it overloaded her Semblance, too. She definitely couldn't return that attack to deal any real damage...

Jaune swiped at OJ, who sidestepped the attack and used the momentum to begin his attack on Jaune. The black and silver Keyblades clashed as Jaune protected himself and they began to push against one another. "OJ, this isn't right!" Jaune grunted as he strained to keep his strength up to OJ's level. "We're the same, so you have to know that!"

"I know you're weak. Once you lose what I have lost... you'll see I'm right," OJ growled. He pushed as hard as he could against the blade lock and Jaune suddenly felt the wall of glowing energy slam into his back. OJ was standing eight feet away, Keyblade held in front of him. He turned just in time to duck beneath Yang's haymaker attack and continue moving into a back kick. The brawler stumbled backwards, arms splayed out until OJ spun and delivered a hammer blow to her shoulder. Her face slammed into the stone ground, at which point OJ turned again and hit her away with his Keyblade like she was a golf ball.

"Yang!" Jaune forced himself up to his feet, wobbling for a moment as the pain of OJ's last blow continued to wash over him. He made himself ignore it, and ran towards his counterpart. He slashed at his opponent, trying to carve through his opponent's back with the Kingom Key. OJ turned his head, but the attack hit him. OJ slid across the ground, his aura flickering over the place where the blow had landed for a moment before the damage was undone. "Leave her alone!"

"Okay, then I'll knock some sense into you instead," OJ growled, lowering the arm that had taken the attack. He rushed Jaune, slashing down in an attack that the knight was barely able to block in time. The blow shook his entire body and nearly tore the Keyblade from his hands, but he held tight and shoved back, turning to slash at his counterpart's throat. OJ hopped back a step, then dashed forward and slashed upward. Jaune stumbled out of its path and fought to keep his balance. OJ simply tipped him over. "Now, how about I start taking this seriously."

Jaune scrabbled to his feet and glared at his opponent. "You're not already?"

OJ held his Keyblade out to his side. "Now." He disappeared in a blur of black lines, reappearing behind Jaune and slamming No Name into the small of Jaune's back. The Keyblade wielder went flying, colliding with the Fence and falling to the ground.

 _How is he so strong?_ Jaune wondered as his face slammed into the dirt. _We're the same, so how is he... stronger than me?_

"You should focus on getting back up, Jaune. They've been keeping you weak!" OJ snarled, hand wrapping around Jaune's ankle. The knight yelped as he was torn from the wall and slammed back first into the ground. OJ sprinted along the path before spinning and tossing Jaune into the ocean of Keyblades. He turned and swung with both hands at Yang, who was coming his way. Her fist collided with the Keyblade's edge, forcing the two of them to a standstill.

"You've been holding him back!" he snarled. "He's caring for you, so he won't look for Pyrrha!"

"Pyrrha told him to move on!" Yang snapped back. "She wants him to live his life – a message you obviously ignored!"

OJ didn't take kindly to that. " _You don't know_ _ **what you're talking about!**_ " he screamed, and an explosion of Darkness formed around his Keyblade's edge. Yang pulled her prosthetic back as fast as she could just before the energy reached her fist, nearly shattering the metal hand. "She's waiting for me!" The Dark infused Keyblade swung around to slam into her side, but she moved her gauntlet down, cloaked in a thin reflect spell, to deflect the attack. She slapped it away and brought her fist down at OJ, only for him to spin around the attack using her block as a fulcrum. Yang leaned down to grab another Keyblade as her momentum carried her, swiping at OJ's head while he continued to spin. The blow made contact, but it was useless as the Keyblade – a Sleeping Lion – shattered on contact. He did stumble forward a step, though he shrugged it off with a crackle of his Aura and steadied himself.

Yang brought her other hand down in a wild hay maker that cracked across her opponent's face, sending spittle flying from his mouth and making him reel backwards for a moment. Yang pressed her advantage, bringing her hands above her and clasping them together, then bringing them down together where his neck connected with his shoulders. Fire coated her fists as they plummeted down, her hair lighting up and her eyes turning an even deeper shade of bloody red.

The flames exploded when Yang's fists hit their target, and OJ was sent sliding backwards once more. He swept his Keyblade out to the side as he slid, casting off the smoke and revealing his glowing yellow eyes, burning with rage and pure Darkness coursing through his veins. Yang froze upon seeing those hate filled eyes locked on hers, so different from the blue of Jaune's. There was none of the anxiety, none of the joy, none of the kindness that was in Jaune's eyes. The Dark Keyblade wielder – for surely, that was what he was – rushed her at lightning speed. She moved her fist forward in an attempt to keep him away, but he easily sidestepped. Yang's head snapped backwards when his palm slammed into her nose. No blood flew out, as her aura took the blow, but she could feel it even as his hand went down to wrap around the back of her neck. A foot slammed into her ankle and she toppled over, landing on her face. His foot slammed into the middle of her back and the tip of the Keyblade rested atop her neck. She tried to push herself up, only for sparks of Thunder to dance across the Keyblade and run through her body. She screamed and hit the ground again. "YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" His Keyblade came down on her fist, fire burning along its edge and shattering her prosthetic hand. She screamed out in pain as the artificial nerves exploded and burned away. OJ, eyes filled with frenzied rage, raised his Keyblade above him again. He was about to end this, right here. Right now.

"Stop!" Sora shouted beyond the wall, slamming it with the Master Keeper.

Jaune rushed up behind his opponent, roaring in rage. OJ's yellow eye's snapped around with his head and No Name crashed into the Kingdom Key, sending it twirling through the air to bury itself blade first in the ground. The black Keyblade came up to Jaune's throat, teeth tapping Jaune's chin. Jaune froze, not even breathing in fear that the blade would drive him through. "Firaga." Jaune roared as black flames blew up in his face, shredding his Aura to ash. A bright white light burned out around his body as he rolled and tumbled across the stone ground, dirt and gravel digging into his flesh and carving his blood out of his body.

OJ lifted Yang by the throat with his off hand, glaring at her. He tossed her aside after a moment, a look of disappointment on his features. He ran a hand through his hair, his features becoming more calm and collected. "I've decided that I won't kill you, Yang. That was a rash decision, especially since we were friends once. In one way or another, at least." Then he turned and walked away from the defeated woman, moving towards the portal.

"No!" Sora snapped. OJ stopped as his face slammed into an invisible barrier... created by Sora. The Keyblade Master stood with his hand out, pointed at OJ. OJ turned slowly towards his new opponent and let his own wall drop. "I didn't know if that would work... I'm glad it did." Sora aimed his finger at his new opponent. "I won't let you go through that portal."

OJ held his Keyblade in front of him and prepared for battle. "I don't think that it is a question of what you'll let me do _, Sora_."

Sora moved his hand from pointing at OJ and out to his side. "Disagree." Another No Name appeared in a flash of white sparks. The Keyblade was different than when OJ, Jaune, or Xehanort had wielded it. The black was shinier, and the goat head looked far less evil. The white lines and blue eyes were calm and bright instead of dark and full of hate. Even the curves and edges seemed more soft in Sora's hand. "I'm not going to let you get away with hurting my friends!" Then he rushed forward, dragging the teeth of his Keyblade along the ground behind him and kicking up a sandstorm behind him.

OJ raised his Keyblade over his right shoulder and snarled. "I won't let you keep me away from Pyrrha!" he roared, charging Sora in turn. Darkness flared along the darkened No Name, the tip angling towards Sora's throat.

Sora brought his Keyblade's up, rage filling his eyes. OJ swung around with his own, the dark edge rippling as it approached Sora's weapons. The blades collided, a massive explosion of energy flew out from the point of contact, dispelling the sandstorm that Sora had kicked up in an attempt to blind his opponent during his upslash. The energy pulsed through the crossroads, causing the weapons to shiver and either chime as they collided with each other or disappear as they were completely obliterated by the force. Sora spun around, slashing with No Name in an overhead. OJ jumped to the side and dodged the attack, though Sora used his overhead slash to move his other weapon into a powerful stab aimed at the dark Keyblade Wielder's chest. OJ slapped the attack to the side and turned on his right heel, delivering a back kick to Sora. The Keyblade Master flicked his wrist and the Master Keeper flashed down to block the kick. Dust exploded out from the point of contact, though that cloud was quickly carved in two as Sora's No Name collided with OJ's. Then the two began to pick up with their attacks.

OJ's keyblade arced at Sora's throat, the teeth slashing through the air just before his neck. The Master Keeper swept just over OJ's head, hitting hairs as the blonde ducked to avoid the attack. He turned the dodge into a sweeping kick, actually managing to hit Sora's ankles. However, it did little, as he simply simply flipped over and landed on his feet before bringing the Keyblade down. OJ's eyes widened with fear and he raised the flat of the Keyblade above him, taking the long series of blows hat kept slamming into his guard.

Jaune and Yang just watched as Sora began to easily destroy his opponent, deflecting blows before they could arrive and attacking well beyond OJ's guard. Jaune was catatonic, broken and defeated on his knees. The Kingdom Key rested on its side beside him and blood trickled down from above his eye. "Am..?"

Sora snap kicked OJ's chest and the man went flying, slamming face first into the barrier before falling to the ground.

"Jaune?" Yang asked, fighting through her pain. "Jaune, talk to me."

"Am I going to be like him?"

Sora used both of his Keyblades to effortlessly block the attacks and spells flying his way, every movement serving to demonstrate the sheer difference in their levels.

Yang shut her eyes and turned herself so she was leaning her back against the Fence, her face in front of his. She reached out with her sole remaining hand, grabbing his shoulder tight. "Jaune, you've gotta snap out of it. Come on..."

"Am I going to be a monster?"

"Jaune..."

His voice cracked. "We're the same. We use Darkness. We betray our friends... He was better than me and he – he – he's a monster... So what am I?"

"You're our friend, Jaune." Yang said resolutely. She grasped his shoulder even tighter and her eyes became stony and serious. "You're better than him."

"ENOUGH!" OJ screamed, and his body glowed with a deep black energy that swarmed over his Keyblade. He rushed Sora, Keyblade slashing in an overhead.

"Trying the same thing again? I'm not even that stupid!" Sora snapped angrily, raising the Master Keeper to take the blow.

And then the No Name passed through his Keyblade and slashed across his chest.

Sora gasped more out of surprise than pain, the resilience coming with the Keyblade more than protecting him from the damage. But how did it happen? Sora shook his surprise out of his head and slashed horizontally at OJ's head, aiming to catch it between between both of his Keyblades. OJ Dashed a step back and raised his Keyblade, letting it get caught between Sora's weapons. "Big mistake," Sora said as he began to move his weapons to tear OJ's Keyblade out of his hands.

OJ grinned evilly. "Big mistake," he echoed. Then, again, the No Name faded through the pair of Keyblades. Sora saw the black edge coming for his face and he forced himself to let go of his Keyblades and sidestep, summoning them back to his grasp as he made his way out of the weapon's path.

"Okay, what's going on here?" Sora snapped, twirling his Keyblades and entering his ready stance again.

"Say hello to my Semblance, Sora. That ability none of you ever thought I would get!" OJ snapped venomously. He twirled the No Name, his Keyblade trailing his blackened Aura. "I can infuse weapons with my Aura and make every slash unblockable." He dashed forward and Sora had to fight off the urge to simply deflect the attack. Instead, the Keyblade Master had to dodge to the side and avoid the attack, narrowly avoiding the much faster blow. The attack passed through his spiky hair, at which point OJ's knee came up. Sora brought his arm up to block the attack, though the foot passed through his arm and slammed into his nose. Sora hissed in pain and rolled backwards, tumbling until he made it up to his feet again. OJ smirked. "Ah. I meant any attack, not any weapon. My 'mistake.'" He slashed diagonally at Sora again.

Sora jumped back, forcing himself to think through all of this. His defense was completely done. He had a tendency to block all of the attacks that came his way, the Keyblade's natural ability to create Reflect walls and unbalance enemies had become a core part of his fighting style, and to not have it available to him now? This was not going to be fun.

"And that's not all I can do!" OJ shouted jubilantly, snapping Sora out of his thoughts. The Dark Keyblade wielder was standing beside the edge of the Fence, just beyond the edge of which was the Doorway to the Realm of Darkness. The No Name glowed with his black Aura, glinting as it passed slowly through the Fence. Sora's eyes widened and he charged forward, knowing exactly what this meant.

"Nice try," OJ said before summoning his Aura around his entire body. He dove through the wall, his Aura crackling and disappearing completely as he tumbled. He snarled in pain as his Aura died out completely and the black glow left him... a few inches from the Doorway. He pushed himself slowly up to his feet and grinned at Sora, who was busy lowering the Fence. "See you." Then he pulled up his hood, jumped backwards, and disappeared through the Doorway.

"Dammit!" Sora snapped, forcing the fence down. He sprinted towards the Doorway, unsummoning the Master Keeper so he could summon his red and gray Keyblade armor and follow OJ through. The Doorway began to close quickly, shrinking as soon as OJ passed through it. Sora roared and dove forward, arms outstretched with Keyblades in both. He had to make it through. He had to stop OJ _now_.

But the Doorway slammed shut just before he could pass through, winking out of existence so the armored Keyblade Master slammed face first into the ground. He rolled through the dirt until he finally came to a stop. He laid still where he had stopped, glaring at the sky in silence. He'd failed. OJ had escaped and he had failed because he hadn't been ready for this fight. He'd been too confident he could easily win without knowing what OJ could do. "Dammit..." Sora sighed under his breath. The armor around his body disappeared, revealing his black and red clothes once more. The Keyblades vanished a moment later, their master knowing they were of no use any more.

Sora remained there for another second before he forced his mind to realize someone else needed him more than he wanted to get angry. He had a job to do, after all, as Jaune's Keyblade Master. Sora pushed himself up to his feet and looked over at his friend.

Yang was in bad sorts, missing an arm with a depleted Aura and a bruise across her face from some blow or another. Yet, despite her injuries, she was the one holding Jaune up. He was injured as well, but Sora knew what the real problem was. Jaune's will was broken completely, A Heart weakened by pain was a huge danger to a Keyblade wielder in any time, but when the universe was under threat it could be even worse. Sora sighed, hoping he could help his friend overcome his doubt, and walked slowly over to the pair of blondes.

"Jaune," Sora said as he approached, plopping down cross legged in front of his friend. "Jaune, are you okay?" There wasn't a response, simply an empty glare at the dirt. Sora looked over at Yang.

"You bugged us?" Yang asked, her brow furrowed angrily.

Sora sighed and let himself lay back in the dirt again. "It was Ironwood's idea. He made us do it or else we wouldn't be allowed to let you guys leave," Sora explained as he staired up at the empty blue sky. He shut his eyes. "We did it last time we were all on Remnant, after Ironwood said he'd also help make sure no one bothered you when you visited Jaune's family."

Yang looked over at Jaune, who was still catatonic. She wasn't sure he had blinked anytime recently, and he hadn't moved at all for a while. Not even a nervous cradle back and forth. "So what now?"

Sora didn't sit up. "OZ asked me to stop OJ, but now..." He sighed and draped his prosthetic over his eyes. After a moment of silence he jumped up to his feet, a determined smile on his features. "So, I guess we stop him. You guys know what he's after, and where some of those pieces are, right?"

Yang nodded up at him. "Good. Then we can get to them first," Sora said. He frowned. "I'll have to figure things out with OZ for now, and..." he looked over at Yang and gave a weak smile. "You need a hand?"

Yang didn't even bother laughing, she was so emotionally spent. She lifted her arm in front of her. "This happens way too much," she muttered before letting it fall. She looked over at Jaune, whose eyes had finally shut. Soft, quiet sobs were wracking his body, and it looked like he wouldn't be ready to go for a while. "Jaune, can you talk with us?"

"Looks like you were right, huh?" Jaune noted hollowly. He placed his head on his knees and placed his hands on the back of his head to enter the fetal position. "I can't be trusted. Look what I did."

Sora and Yang traded a concerned look. "Jaune, that wasn't you," Yang offered honestly. Her hand looped around one of his and held tight, offering whatever comfort she could manage to give him. "Pyrrha thought you were a hero. She knows you're a hero, wherever she is." There was no response.

Sora didn't interrupt. He simply let her speak, knowing that her opinion – the opinion of someone who had been traveling with him, fighting with him, and growing with him – mattered far more to Jaune than Sora's opinion did. "Jaune... I know you're a hero," Yang continued, her grip loosening but her fingers remaining looped around his hand.

Jaune's grip on the back of his head slackened, but he didn't exit his fetal position. "Then you're wrong." His grip tightened again.

Sora sighed and put his hands in his pockets. "I'll fly you guys back to Remnant so Yang can get her hand fixed," he said. "Then Oz and I will go get your Gummi Ship. We have a lot to talk about."

Jaune and Yang didn't say anything else, so Sora just looked up at the sky. _Jaune is going to have to beat you, OJ. And I'm going to let him_. He raised his left hand to the sky and summoned the Gummi Ship to pick them up, a green circle erupting from the ground below his feet that formed a link to the ship orbiting this small world. Sora looked over at the crossroads of Keyblades, feeling his old friends' presence in his Heart. _Will you guys give him a hand?_ The answer was silence, but Sora still felt like he'd been given a good answer. A small smile appeared on his features just as the Gummi ship arrived and the three of them began their journey back to Remnant.

 _ **S M H S**_

OJ was plummeting,the world around empty. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was jumping through the portal and having it shut in Sora's face. But then... what was going on? He continued to fall, eventually catching sight of water far below. He was aware that it would logically hurt for him to hit the water this fast, but for some reason he knew that he would be fine. He slammed into the water like it was just more air and the world became darker. Bubbles rose around him. Far below was a familiar sight... _Her_ , sleeping as she always was. She was just as he remembered, with her long hair, vibrant eyes, elegant features. A golden halo of Light glistened behind her head. Pyrrha, the only one present on his Heart's stations. He looked down – or up, he supposed – towards his feet to see the ever present storm of Darkness that rested above his Heart.

His head turned towards a brilliant Light that exploded in the distance. Far away was another pillar, so far that he could not make out anything on its face from this angle. There was, however, a lone figure on all fours. Screams of pain and anguish reached OJ's ears even from this distance. Who –

Then he felt a massive jolt and he awoke, his Dive disappearing to be replaced by swirling black and purple. An ocean of black with stony outcroppings that blended into the starless sky. Dim blue... well, it wasn't Light, but it certainly made it easier to see. OJ sat up slowly and smacked his lip, trying to get rid of the taste of sleep and blood there. He raised his hand above his head and summoned a Curaga that stitched him back together. His Aura hissed as it was recharged by the powerful magic, and the black energy flickered around his form for a moment. He cracked his neck as a pain he hadn't noticed disappeared. "Hmph, Sora did more to me than I thought," he mumbled, stretching to check his full range of motion was okay. He nodded and pushed himself up to his feet. He cast a glance around. "So... this is the Realm of Darkness. Then I wonder where..." He looked around. Where was the Kingdom Key D going to be?

He ran a hand through his hair and groaned. He hoped Jaune was okay. He knew that they had parted on bad terms, but... well, Sora was either lying or wrong. Everyone telling him to move on, that Pyrrha would want him to be happy with someone else. It was absurd. Jaune was just like OJ, and because of that OJ knew that Jaune could never be happy unless he had power and fought to reclaim a lifetime at the side of Pyrrha Nikos. Anything less than that would be a meaningless life to waste. He knew that, Jaune knew that... they just wanted Jaune to be the same as ever. Weak. A mascot they could drag around to make themselves feel stronger. OJ's hands clenched tight enough for the material of his gloves to squeak angrily. Bugging Jaune, following him around. No trust, no belief. They didn't deserve him, but they held him back anyways.

He took a breath to calm himself. Fine, then. He'd just have to show them. Take Jaune to the next world, help him find a Pyrrha, too. Then they could be happy and all those so-called friends holding him back... they could feel the pain of losing him. Yes, OJ liked that idea quite a lot. So, then, one step at a time... he had to find the Kingdom Key D. OJ cast another look around. "Where do I start?" he wondered aloud. He crossed his arms. "Hm... Oh!" He held his hand out in front of him. "Hope this doesn't summon an army of Heartless to attack me... I don't have forever to deal with them, after all." He summoned his No Name Keyblade, black sparks exploding around his fist. "Lead my way, Keyblade. Lead me to my destiny."

He twirled his weapon above his head and slammed it into the ground beneath his feet. The Realm of Darkness around him shuddered for a moment, the force of his Heart and the Keyblade forcing it to bend to his will in any way a violation of its own desires. Still, there was little it could do against the iron will of mania drawing one towards a lost love, and soon the Realm of Darkness was forced to surrender. From the ocean before OJ rose a bridge of stony Darkness, steps ascending towards the sky. Though, from how his own Sora had described the Realm of Darkness, it was likely the sky was just the bottom of another floor. Or perhaps he was on the ceiling. No way to be sure, really. OJ pulled No Name from the ground and began the long, boringf task of ascending the stairs.

It was a quiet journey, as if the endless number of Heartless in this world were avoiding him. Well, OJ supposed they at least had good survival instincts, then. OJ walked up the stair without pause, knowing that his goal awaited him at the end of this road.

He finally made it to the top, his Aura thankfully recovered over the course of the long journey. He passed through the sky, the world becoming only black for a moment before he reappeared in another section of the Realm of Darkness, a room with a door at the opposite end and otherwise empty... save for one thing. "So, this is where you were waiting," he muttered, raising the Keyblade in front of him.

The swirling tower of Shadows responded the only way it knew how – it attacked. OJ sighed and raised the No Name in front of his body, summoning up a Reflect barrier around his body. The mass of Shadows collided hard with his barrier, causing it to creak as the monsters swirled around him. Still, the barrier held and all the damage that it took exploded outward at the trailing shadows. Energy pulsed across the mob as dozens of Shadows were annihilated, wiped out by OJ's counterattack. He jumped at the staggered creatures, No Name held in both hands and running parallel to his outstretched right leg. He slashed upward, coating the blade with an Aeroga that exploded upon contact and sent each individual Shadow scattered across the battlefield. OJ forced his body to stay in the air as he forced No Name to lock onto a few dozen Heartless still stunned from his blow. Streaks of pure Darkness flew from the tip of the blade and slammed into each target, the resulting collision shredding the pureblood Heartless and slaughtering them by the dozens.

He landed as the last blast exploded from his Keyblade, giving him more than enough time to quickly pick apart the few remaining survivors of his assault. No Name flashed through the Darkness, each low containing enough power to easily carve a trio of Shadows into dust. It took very little time for him to eradicate his enemies, at which point he was just surrounded by swirling pink Hearts that could not escape the Darkness that had devoured them. He ignored them, uncaring if they would find their way back to Kingdom Hearts or be devoured once more to form Heartless. There was only one thing that mattered, and it was there. Through the only doorway in this room. So he passed through it.

And he was not disappointed.

Floating in a pillar of Light, guarded from the Heartless by the powerful energy that the Keyblade exhuded, was the Kingdom Key D. It hovered above a stone shaped like two circles atop another circle in the shape of the small insignia that made up the Keychain of the Kingdom Key. OJ grinned wide and walked slowly towards the Keyblade. "Hello," he muttered lamely, unsure of what else he should say. He held his hand out and reached for the weapon, trying to link his Heart to it. He dropped No Name from his left hand and left it where it lay, exploding into a shower of sparks as it was abandoned by its user. "Come to me. I am a Keyblade Master – I am strong!"

The Kingdom Key D quivered in the air, feeling OJ exerting his will upon it. "I summon the Keyblade, the weapon of the strongest Heart. And no Heart is as strong as mine is now!" OJ snapped, rage turning his will to iron.

The Keyblade had no choice but to listen. It vanished in an explosion of Light, reappearing in OJ's outstretched hand at nearly the same time. His hand grew tighter and tighter around the weapon's hand and he grinned. The first step was finally complete. "Now... to find the other pieces of the puzzle."

He flicked the Kingdom Key D out to his side, the silver becoming gray, the gold becoming bronze, and the red becoming blood along its entire body. Darkness coated its blade, and a Corridor of Darkness opened. The hole in the Wall of Light was still there, open forever now. He could easily leave now, easily retrieve everything he needed. "I'm coming Pyrrha," OJ muttered, tears streaming down his face as pure joy filled his Heart. "I'm coming..." He took a step through the portal, his ultimate weapon in hand, and returned to threaten the Realm of Light once more.

 _ **S M H S**_

Ichigo Kurosaki, "Chad" Sado, and Uryu Ishida had been wandering through the empty desert for hours, searching for any sign of where their friend Orihime was being held by Aizen. She had been taken days ago, stolen away by one of Aizen's most powerful lieutenants, Hollow monsters called Arrancar, these ones specifically known as the Espada. Each member of Aizen's lieutenants had enough power to easily go toe to toe with some of the strongest Soul Reapers, so the three were horrified to wonder what might be happening to Orihime

When they had first arrived, it had been inside of some sort of underground tunnels, running from traps and fighting for their lives against weaker Arrancar. It had seemed like they were on the right track. After all, who else but Aizen would have some sort of underground, supervillainy base in the World of the Hollows. Instead, Chad and Uryu had revealed their new strength and soundly defeated the Arrancar in a destructive show that could rival some of Ichigo's own Getsuga Tenshous. The tunnels had collapsed, giving the three barely enough time to 'safely' escape into the blistering desert with its sky of eternal night. "Only around you, Kurosaki, could a simple rescue mission turn into an assault on Aizen's army and a trek through a deadly desert hellscape."

"Hey, you're the one who was responsible for the tunnels collapsing, Four Eyes!" Ichigo snapped, his aggressive personality easily coming to the forefront when Ishida was concerned. "Maybe the problem is you, you ever think of that!?"

"No, that is unlikely," Ishida retorted. "Just look at your big cleaver of a sword. You are the destructive one."

Chad sighed and shook his head as he followed along in silence. For such good friends, their overly common arguments grew incredibly annoying incredibly fast. Still, it was how they dealt with their worry for Orihime, so Chad would let them continue. Without this stress relieving argument, they would grow too worried to think or even fight, and that would leave them with very few options when an enemy finally arrived.

Eventually, the argument came to a stop and they trio walked on in a silence that Chad was quite grateful to finally have. "What do you guys think happened to Jaune and Yang?" Ichigo finally asked.

"The other two intruders from the Soul Society?" Ishida asked for clarification. Ichigo gave a short nod. Uryu placed a hand on his chin while they walked and bit his cheek. "Well, I doubt they are dead. The Head Captain likely would have alerted us to such a development."

"That's good," Ichigo sighed.

"It does not feel right performing a rescue without them?" the usually silent Chad inquired.

Ichigo tossed a glance over at his old friend. "Yeah, I guess," he muttered. He shrugged. "But we just haven't heard from them in months. Are they okay? And... how do we get in touch with them?"

Ishida grunted. "Hm... It seems they left quite an impression on you, Kurosaki. Why is that?"

Ichigo didn't respond.

"Their reckless desire to help," Chad suggested after a moment.

"Their odd weapons and fighting styles," Ishida input.

"They were fast friends," Ichigo finally explained. He looked up at the sky and placed his right hand on the handle of Zangetsu. "I just had a feeling all of a sudden that they're in trouble, you know? And I can't do anything to help out." He growled angrily and kicked the sand. "I'm just never strong enough to reach everyone..."

"They were plenty strong enough on their own," Ishida pointed out. "From what I understand, Yang was able to stand up to Captain Kuchiki on her own, and we all saw Jaune help you defeat the Captain. Whatever trouble they are in, I am sure that they are capable of handling it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ichigo agreed dismissively.

"Besides, I believe that we are in enough danger that we should worry about what is in front of us, for now," Ishida continued simply. "After all, we -"

Ishida was cut off by Chad raising his hand in front of them. "What is it?" the Quincy archer inquired.

"Over there," Chad explained before unfurling one finger towards the horizon. The group looked towards where he was pointing and saw, standing alone, a lone figure with long, blood red hair running down its back. Decaying Hollows, massacred by sword strikes that had cleaved them in two.

"Is that an Arrancar?" Ishida wondered aloud, unsure as he was not picking up the same pressure from the figure that one of the upgraded Hollows gave off. This was more... cold. It was as if, rather than being Dark like that of the Hollows or Heartless, it was truly empty. The three cast a glance at one another, then moved cautiously towards the figure.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked as they got close. He slid Zangetsu off of his shoulder and held it at the ready, the cleaver's body carving a clear silhouette against the white sand.

The figure, clearly a woman they could see now, turned and glared at them. She was wearing a mask, lending credence to the theory that she was indeed an Arrancar of some sort. As did the long katana that she held in her right hand, its gray blade coming from a long, sharp insignia that made up the cross guard. Red eyes the same shade as her hair glared out from beneath the mask. She wore armor of black and red, layered to look like that of a samurai, and long black boots. A red sash dangled from her hip. "Morrigan," the woman explained. She dismissed her weapon and the three jumped backwards in surprise. Arrancar couldn't do that to their Zanpakuto swords, could they? "You seem unnerved by my presence. Why?"

"Your mask, it -"

"Ah, like these creatures," she said. Her voice was disturbingly even, almost like she had no emotions. She must have been very good at hiding her emotions. She removed her mask, revealing a face that looked much younger than it was, if very tired. She looked familiar, in fact. "Is this better?"

Hm... she looked _really_ familiar...

"... Ichigo," Ishida muttered disapprovingly.

"Wha?" Ichigo shouted. He looked around in confusion. "Oh, uh... yeah, that's better. Thanks. We were just worried you were an Arrancar."

"Are they the creatures with the swords?" Morrigan asked. She shook her head. "I have yet to meet one that is not underwhelming."

"Underwhelming? An Arrancar?" Ichigo asked.

Ishida scoffed. "Just how strong are you?"

"I have not reached the apex, yet," Morrigan clarified.

"The mountain that must always be climbed," Chad echoed.

Morrigan frowned. "In... in a way."

Ichigo slid Zangetsu onto his back once more. "Well, if you're looking for tough fights, we're about to go for the toughest. We're here to save our friend."

"... A pointless endeavor. I doubt my enemy will be there," Morrigan said after a moment's consideration. She turned away and summoned her blade back. It would be best to train without fully risking her life. These 'Arrancar' had thus far been weak, but there would likely be ones capable of wiping her out if she pushed it too hard.

Ichigo glared at her for a moment. "Ugh... fine. Not everyone can be like Jaune and Yang, I guess." He turned away with his friends to leave.

Morrigan, however, had frozen. Yang. They knew Yang. They knew – Morrigan growled as her head felt like it was splitting. An image of a tiny, blonde baby streaked through her mind's eye. Morrigan forced it from her mind, forced the pain from her mind, and she turned on her heel. "Fine, guilt me into it, why don't you?" she asked, forcing false emotion into her voice. "I'll help you, I'll help you! Don't beg."

"I'm not -"

"Don't deny it, you'll sound like my brother," Morrigan interjected, her grin just like that of her Somebody's daughter. Her grin faded, but she passed it off by saying, "We'll need to hurry if we want to save your friend."

Ichigo sighed and grew serious again. "You're right. Thanks for helping us out," he said, then he turned towards the spires rising out of the sands in the distance. "Don't worry, Orihime. We're coming."


	17. Injective

**AN: Hey, glad to post. Sorry it's been a bit, but this last quarter is getting crazy. I just finished a couple weeks of midterms and a few other things.**

 **To Gamelover21592: I'm glad that OJ's betrayal was as awesome as I'd hoped.**

 **To Remnant7: Beyond expired if it's that sour, huh? Anyways, I'm glad you liked the chapter. I hope this one's just as good, at least!**

 **To Xehanorto: Yeah, I was starting to like him, too. But OJ's too obsessed, you know? You'll see that he and Jaune are... different in more than a few ways.**

 **To fangs of death:Well... Jaune and OJ's semblances are... It's hard to explain without spoiling Jaune's. They're kind of the same. I mean, a Semblance is supposed to be an expression of one's character, after all.**

 **To GuestWithIdeas: Yeah, OJ's pretty obsessed. Whether or not he really thinks what he does about Jaune's friends could be up for debate. He did lose his entire universe, so he's not exactly the most mentally stable individual. On top of that, you'll see that he and Jaune have a few differences that would also negatively affect OJ. Jaune's semblance is definitely going to play into the story, and it's going to be similar to the show. How I picture OJ's is also kind of an extension, in my mind, of Jaune's in the show. He infuses Aura into people, but I doubt that people are the only things he can do it for. In this it just happens to have another benefit. Jaune's... you'll just have to see.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!**

 _ **Chapter 17: Injective**_

Jaune was sprinting through the pitch black, the horrible knowledge that whatever it was that he was chasing was not something that he truly wanted to see. Still, he couldn't stop. He _had_ to keep running, to find whatever it was that he was so desperately chasing. He kept running blindly, white clouds drifting across empty black in front of him. He grasped at the emptiness, trying to find purchase on something that he could use to pull himself forward but his fingers never touching anything but Darkness. Somewhere in the shadows, he heard a heavy _clink_. His head snapped towards the noise, and he saw sparks of Light glittering far away in the black. He slammed his foot down and turned on a dime, sprinting towards the vanishing sparks. Footsteps began to thud loudly in front of him. "Wait!" he shouted, throwing his hand out in front of him. "Stop!"

The figure, barely more than an outline in the black, didn't do as commanded. It always kept just ahead of Jaune, speeding too far away for him to catch up, but slowing down when he had nearly lost it. It was taunting him, he could tell. Whoever was just in front of him was... Jaune cursed to himself. Who was this, leading him through the Darkness? The figure stopped and he could feel its formless gaze turn to him for a moment. Just as he neared, fingers brushing against the black material of the figure's coat, the figure bolted away at full speed. Jaune snarled to himself and raised his hand, summoning up –

He froze at the sight of the weapon he held in his hand. "Th..." his voice died. It was not the Kingdom Key held in his hand, not the weapon he had been given in order to reclaim his goodness and make up for his mistakes. No. In his hands was the one weapon he hoped that he would _never_ hold again. Its black, gnarled body was poison to him. Its white veins coursed with his Darkness. Its blue eye stared into his soul and summoned up his every sin. The goat grinned at him like he was a fool for thinking he was free of it, though no name had been given to this weapon, so the only name it had was thus – No Name. "Wait! Stop!" he heard from far away. Jaune felt fear run down his spine.

Jaune dropped the weapon and stumbled back, hoping that he was wrong. He pulled his hood over his head and sprinted away, hearing the sound of footsteps gaining on him now. _No, no!_ He screamed inwardly as he felt the No Name, unbidden, return to his hand. His fingers curled around it instinctively and he stopped, hoping to defend himself. His gaze turned to the figure advancing on him and he froze. Blonde hair, a figure with blue eyes dressed entirely in a black coat. Its yellow eyes burned with Darkness and rage, revealing a monster. Its face was contorted with rage and his fingers reached out for Jaune. _Jaune's_ fingers reached out for Jaune. He jumped away just as the figure's fingers brushed against his own Black Coat – _No, no, no! NO!_ – and he ran away at full speed.

"We're the same," Jaune heard his own voice call from in front of him.

"No! No, we're not!" he screamed, raising his Keyblade and slashing, eyes shut.

Instead of himself, however, it was Yang that screamed in pain. Jaune's eyes shot open, revealing an image he had already seen once before – one too many times, already. Yang was on her knees, hand destroyed by No Name. Jaune's own father was scrabbling to his feet on a ground covered entirely in Black Dust. Heartless and Grimm screamed in battle all around him and... and he could _feel_ the battle Sora and Ruby were having with Salem. This was him, this was when he had nearly killed Yang and his own father.

"We're the same."

Jaune whirled and attacked again, though his blade met a golden blade. OJ, Jaune knew, despite his identical appearance. Blue eyes and a smirk shot at Jaune as the Kingdom Key D in OJ's left hand effortlessly kept up against Jaune's continued push.

"NO! No, we're not!" Jaune snapped, pushing harder. Black flames exploded into being along No Name's edge.

OJ's smirk widened. "Oh, you see? More proof."

Jaune stumbled backwards, falling onto his back beside the injured Yang. Her head drifted slowly towards him. Her tear stained eyes were red, filled with rage and betrayal. "Why did you hurt me?" she asked. Her eyes turned an angry red and she hoarsely screamed, "Why do you keep hurting me!?"

OJ crouched in front of the crying Jaune. He cocked his head to the side and scoffed. "Wow. You see? Even they know we're one and the same."

Jaune was on his feet, suddenly, the Kingdom Key D raised above him. Ruby was on the ground, defeated. Broken. Her eyes glanced up, just in time for Jaune to bring the blade down. He screamed, trying to wake up, but couldn't. He was forced to watch as the blade sliced through his friend's body. Blood coated the blade of the Keyblade and her eyes rolled back into her head even as her body began to disintegrate, vanishing into Light. Jaune stepped into the place where she had been and saw Blake glaring at him, her distrust for humanity reborn by his actions. Another slash despite his protests and the blood began to run down the Keyblade's edge. He took another step and continued to scream. His reward was the Keyblade turning red as it carved through Weiss.

He grew silent, knowing now that he had to watch this horror show. He could not stop it, this was his destiny. His horrible destiny, to destroy the people he loved the most. He cut down Sora while still in a daze. Next, Ren and Nora were together, clutching at each other's hands. Jaune begged for what was coming to not happen. He could not convince his own body to stay its hand as Darkness appeared beneath the two, drowning them as Jaune walked over their struggling bodies. Jaune was trying to fight physically now as he cut down everyone he had ever met, all of his friends, until, finally, Yang was glaring up at him, hatred filling her eyes. But fear, as well. So much fear. From Jaune's own mouth came the next words: "After all, it'll be your fault when she dies." The Kingdom Key D was all red in his hand now, bathed in the blood he had shed. The blood of the friends he had killed. He was screaming again. Begging, pleading, demanding, bargaining, threatening. It was to no avail. "All. Your. Fault." Then the blade arced down, approaching Yang's forehead.

"NO!" Jaune screamed, shooting up in his seat and his eyes opening. He thrashed about wildly where he was, fighting against whatever it was that had been making him kill his friend. "Yang, I -" He froze, a cautious comfort flooding through him.

He wasn't on that battlefield, Yang crouching before him and preparing to die. He took a few deep breaths and looked around in confusion to try and get his bearings. "Ya-where?" He asked between his hyperventilating breaths. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't – He forced another deep, calm breath and he began to slowly steady himself. It took a few more but, when he was finally able to take a breath and hold it in, he let that last breath out in a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. He was in... Yang's recovery room in Doctor Polendina's house. Right, he remembered now. She was... she was sleeping after Doctor Polendina had to repair all her synth nerves in her shattered arm. She... She was fine. Ish. Alive, at least. Alive. He took a deep breath and leaned back, eyes closed. She was fine...

"Jaune?"

He opened his right eye. Yang was staring at him, concern etched across her features. She was in her hospital bed, the bed propped up at an angle so she could easily sit up, and was wearing a plain, all white hospital gown that looked so out of place on her. She must have woken up for the first time not too long ago and had yet to change. After all, it looked far too plain for someone that wore what Yang so often wore. She shifted on the bed, revealing the repaired port on her elbow that was just awaiting its new hand, and Jaune shut his eye to hide the guilt he was feeling. "Hey," he said, cursing internally when his voice broke after the first letter.

Yang leaned back in her bed and sighed. What was she supposed to say to him? "Jaune about what -"

"Yang, look I -"

They both stopped speaking and looked at one another. The silence dragged on for a little while until, finally: "You want to hear a joke?" Yang asked. She pushed herself further up with her hand, then smiled at her partner.

He frowned and looked at the ground, then back up at her. He nodded.

"Okay, here it is... Statistically... 9 out of 10 injections are in vein!" Yang laughed once and gave a wide, semi-forced grin as she waited for Jaune to respond to that joke, which she even thought was subpar.

"Ha," Jaune muttered before shutting his eyes and leaning back again.

Yang frowned. "I don't need pity laughs, Jaune," she half-scolded, earning an apologetic sigh from the Keyblade wielder. "I've done this before. I lost my arm, not my life."

Jaune flinched at those words. "Oh, uh... Right," he muttered as his dream's final moments played in his head again. "Sorry. I won't laugh again."

"Not what I-! Urgh..." Yang groaned and shut her eyes. "It's never right..."

Jaune laughed slightly at her reaction. "I'm glad you're okay," he said after a moment of quiet that was filled only by Yang's griping about how no one had a sense of humor.

Yang looked over at him. "And are you?" she asked simply. Jaune glanced down without answering. "Oh. Yeah, makes sense."

"How could – I mean, how could OJ do this, Yang?" Jaune finally asked. "He fought Salem and now this? _This_ is what he does now?"

Yang shook her head and shrugged. She didn't know what happened, but she could at least guess and assume the best of OJ. "Losing his entire world... I bet it changed him, Jaune."

"I should've trusted you when you said something was off," Jaune said. He leaned forward and put his forehead down on its edge. "I'm so stupid!"

"Well, usually, yeah," Yang said jokingly. She sighed when he didn't respond, then placed her hand on the back of his shoulder. "Come on, Blondie. You can't sulk. You're better than that."

"I don't know what I'm better than, Yang, I -" he looked up at her and froze. She was making a silly face.

"Wha?" she asked as if nothing was wrong.

"I don't see this ending good, Yang. At all." He let his head drift back down, where he remained silent for a while.

Yang opened her mouth to speak after a minute or so, but was cut off by Jaune himself. "I thought about it, you know?" he muttered. His shoulders shook with a long breath that held back tears. "Taking him up on his offer. Leaving. I... I _actually_ thought about it."

Yang considered this for a moment. "And I _think_ about jumping off bridges. Everyone does. It's called something like... I don't remember. But everyone thinks about it," she pointed out. "Your brain just asks, 'What if I did this?' Then your brain goes 'No, stupid!' and everything's back to normal."

He jumped up, tears in his eyes, and stood up straight. "But this isn't jumping off a bridge. It's killing _everyone!_ Again!"

"But you said no!" Yang retorted, half getting out of her bed, throwing the covers off of her and getting on her knees to look him directly in the eye. "You're not a bad guy. You're not the villain. You don't want to hurt anyone, so you _said_ _no!"_ She leaned forward slightly and grabbed his shoulder. "You said you didn't want to do it."

"But what if I didn't want to say that? What if I -" he froze and his eyes flashed past Yang's shoulder, at which point a bright red flush snapped into existence on his cheeks. "Uh, Y-Yang. Uh... You, uh, hospital gown."

"Hm?" Yang wondered. She turned around and saw that, the hospital had no back. She looked back at Jaune and straightened up so that her back was covered again. "Like what you see?" she finally joked. "Or is there a but?"

"Yes, no, I – Wait, was that a terrible joke!?" Jaune snapped as she laid back on the bed again, pulling the covers over her legs. "What the hell, Yang!?"

"It was an assident."

 _"Accident!"_ Jaune corrected angrily.

Yang was just smirking at him the entire time. "I'd stop, but..."

Jaune cooled and glared. "Again?"

"Hey, it got you out of your funk, even if the jokes did stink," Yang pointed out with a shrug.

Jaune blinked. "I guess it di – that was another one!"

Yang snickered for a moment before it exploded out as uncontrollable laughter. "Yang, those were –"

"You're still blushing!" Yang shouted between guffaws. "So – So... So funny!"

Jaune's blush deepened. "Y-Yang, come on. Stop teasing me," he begged, falling back into his seat and covering his face with his hands. Her laughter only increased in its intensity. "...Yang... Please."

"Butt why?"

The laughter got even louder.

"You can't keep using the same one!"

"I'm behind it one hundred percent, Jaune!"

"YANG!"

"What, am I being too cheeky?" Yang asked. "Are you bummed?"

"Jeez, you've hit bottom with this," Jaune sighed in defeat.

It was only when Yang's laughter somehow redoubled _again_ that he realized his mistake. "Why did I even wake up?" he wondered, draping his arm over his eyes.

The laughter slowly died down and he felt a hand on his knee. "I'm glad you're feeling better, Jaune." He opened his eyes to see Yang smiling softly at him. Her face slowly turned into an annoyed one. "Now, I'm the one who lost an arm. Start comforting me for a change!"

"Ach! Right, right!" Jaune apologized, throwing his hand up. "I take it the surgery went well?"

"Well, other than Doctor Polendina saying that I need to stop breaking my arm, yeah," Yang said with a shrug. "Something about me being 'More destructive than Sora or Ruby?'"

Jaune snorted. "What?" Yang asked.

"No, it's just... I mean, you can give them a run for their Lien," Jaune explained with a shrug. "A large, fiery, explosive run for it."

"They destroy mountains! Cut buildings in half!" Yang snapped defensively.

Jaune shook his head. "You rampaged down a highway once," he pointed out.

"That was – So did Ruby! And Blake and Weiss!"

Jaune frowned for a moment. Then: "You destroyed a club!"

"You did the same thing to the same club!" Yang protested.

"I... Your hair lights on fire when you're angry!" Jaune smirked.

"So?"

"So? You're _always_ angry!"

"Hey!"

As if proving his point, her hair exploded into flames above her. She yelped as her hospital bed began to catch fire, forcing her to slap the flames until they were extinguished. "You're lucky that was a small fire," Jaune smugly said.

Yang turned to him and glared for a moment, scowling. It softened for a moment when she noticed that he wasn't feeling better. He was just hiding it for her sake. "Okay, okay. I'm destructive," she admitted with a shrug. "But not like them, and you know it."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "No, but you try."

"Just imagine if I got a Keyblade," Yang said. "Oh, man. That'd be bad."

"You'd blow up forests just by walking around!"

"Cities by breathing!"

"Worlds by blinking!"

The both of them chuckled. "Well... at least you'd be good with it," Jaune said. He stood up and stretched, his back cracking. "Ah... I'm feeling hungry. You?"

"I could always eat," Yang agreed without a moment's consideration.

He walked towards the door and nodded. "Good, I'll try to find some -"

He was cut off as someone burst through the door.

"YANGIHEARDYOUWEREHURTAREYOUOKAY!?" And Jaune was thrown backwards, flying over Yang's bed and crash landing int the corner, head bent at an awkward angle. Flower petals drifted down around him, signaling the arrival of their first visitor. Ruby slid to a stop and placed her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Yang!"

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, pulling her sister in for a tight hug. "Hey! I'm fine!"

"Where's my little girl!?"

Jaune groaned, just happy that he wasn't in the doorway as another of Yang's hyperactive family charged through. Had he been there, he was sure he would have been trampled by Taiyang Xiao Long, charging through the door with all the grace of a brick on his way to his daughter. He slid to a stop on the side Ruby hadn't occupied and reached down, pinching her cheeks. "My little girl! You need a hand?"

Yang began to laugh, while Ruby and Jaune were forced to groan. They caught each other's gaze and Ruby grimaced. "Oops. Hey, Jaune," she muttered, blushing. She zoomed over to him and held her hand out. "Sorry about that."

He looked up at the upside down girl. "A little warning next time _would_ be nice," Jaune explained as he righted himself and took her hand.

She pulled and heaved him up to his feet before wrapping her arms around his midsection. "It's good to see you again, Buddy."

Jaune smiled and gave her a tight hug back. "You too, Rubes."

Ruby pushed off slightly and looked up into his eye. He noticed with a start that it was easier for her, now. She'd gained an inch or two on him. "Are you okay, Jaune?" she asked, trying to comfort him.

He shrugged, deciding not to let himself spiral down again. "Well, you're about to get better!" Ruby shouted excitedly. She turned to the door. "Ta da!"

Jaune stared blankly for a moment before a soft smile spread across his features, his fears of OJ gone for a moment. Ren and Nora stood there, grinning, with Jaune's own father. "Hey, Kiddo," Argent Arc said, smiling sadly as he did. He walked in after Ren and Nora, who ran forward to hug their leader.

"We heard about everything, Jaune. Are you okay?" Nora asked, as blunt as her hammer. She let go of his shoulders. "Did that OJ guy hurt you? Oh, I'm gonna lay the smack down if I ever see him!"

"Nora speaks for me, as well," Ren pointed out, a serious frown gracing his features. His frown turned to a concerned, thin line. "I know you admired him, Jaune."

Jaune glanced at the ground. "I, uh..." He cleared his throat and looked up, forcing a grin. "Don't worry about me, okay? I'm fine! He got away, so we just have to find..." he trailed off as he noticed his father again.

"Sora and Birdie told me everything," Argent explained simply. He walked to Ren's other side and placed a hand on his son's shoulder. "Come on, let's go talk."

Jaune glanced over at Yang, who was being bombarded by her father and sister, then at Ren and Nora. "We'll be here when you get back," Ren said, offering his friend his hand. Jaune nodded and clapped his hand into Ren's for a handshake before leaving with his father.

The two left the room quietly, walking through Doctor Polendina's home until they reached the kitchen. Argent looked around for a moment before finding some tea, then set to work. Jaune sat down at the counter, looking down at his hands as his father prepared the drink for the both of them. It was silent for a while until, finally, the kettle was placed on the stove. Argent walked over to the island where Jaune sat and stood right across from him. "So, I guess you want to know why I kept OJ from you?" the younger man asked.

Argent crossed his arms. "Seems like a good place to start," he agreed.

Jaune sighed and tried to look up, but found that his guilt was keeping him from meeting his father's eyes. "I, uh... I trusted him. A lot. He was me, you know? Just... better. A better fighter, who fought against Salem, who saved our lives." Jaune fidgeted and wrung his hands for a moment. "He was just a better version of me. I wanted to be like him. He – he used Darkness. I should have known, right then!" Jaune slammed his fist into the counter, harder than he intended; a small crack appeared in the stone. Jaune stared at it for a while before leaning forward and placing his face in his hands. "I just... I wanted to be like him. Confident, strong. I used Darkness because I trusted him. I almost fell because I -"

"No, you didn't."

Jaune looked up and met his father's eyes.

There was no distrust, no anger, no disappointment with his son. He was not annoyed, or about to say they would never speak again. "Jaune, that isn't the way I heard it." Argent walked around the counter and sat next to his son, wrapping his arm around the boy's shoulder. "How many worlds did you visit before this fight?"

"... Four."

Argent leaned in closer. "And how many people did you help in those worlds?" Jaune frowned. "How many lives did you save, how many monsters did you destroy? Jaune, to those people you're a hero." He leaned back. "And maybe, just maybe, this guy can fight better than you right now. Maybe he can use the Keyblade better. Maybe he can use the Darkness. But you have something that he doesn't... You're good. You are _stronger_ than him, because you aren't out there, threatening the world."

Jaune felt his eyes tear up. "He keeps saying that I'm betraying Pyrrha by not helping him," Jaune admitted through the sobs he held back. "That by trying to move on, I... I never loved her. That I never deserved her."

"Then he's an idiot, and no son of mine," Argent said. He brought his son's head into his shoulder and mussed up the boy's hair. "That idiot, that... _OJ_. He doesn't love her, not really. He's obsessed. He wants Pyrrha, not as a person but as a thing. He _deserves_ her? He's _loyal?_ Jaune, what do you know about Pyrrha?"

"She... she was good. The best."

Argent patted his son's back. "Exactly. She was a _good person._ Do you think a good person would be happy with what he's doing? I mean, she stopped you from killing Cinder. She told you to move on, because she didn't want someone obsessed so much with her to do something evil. She loves _you_. Exactly as you are."

Jaune's arms, up until now resting on the counter, zoomed around his dad's shoulders as he began to cry into the man's shoulder. "D-dad... I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, Kiddo. It's okay," he said, brushing the back of his son's head with his hand in an effort to comfort him. "It's okay." They stayed like that for a while, ignoring the screaming whistle of the teapot long enough that the house, long since automated by the Doctor, shut off the stove itself. "Hey... You want to head back down there?"

Jaune let go of his dad and began rubbing at his eyes. "I, uh..." He coughed and nodded. "Yeah." The two stood up, making to leave until Jaune grabbed his dad's wrist. "Are you going to tell Mom?"

Argent stared at his son for a few moments. "Jaune..."

Jaune was fumbling over his words now, begging. "Cause I can't do it. I can't see Mom's face when she learns – I just... I can't see her when she learns there's a me out there doing these things. That I didn't tell her. I can't do it, Dad..."

The man sighed and placed his free hand on his son's shoulder. "I'll tell her," he agreed. "But you'll have to talk with her about it eventually. Your sisters, too."

"I know."

Argent sighed. "You need a haircut," he said, ruffling his son's head before leading him back.

Jaune lifted a strand of hair that reached down to just past his shoulders. "Yeah. I really do," he agreed resolutely before following his father back to the room so he could spend the rest of his time with the friends he needed to get him through this.

 _ **S M H S**_

Classes were already in session at Beacon Academy, something that both surprised and pleased the pair of warriors who had last seen its halls empty following the attack on Beacon. Students were running across the quad, studying, talking, and engaging in duels that, if Yang and Jaune remembered correctly, were against the rules. "Is it me or did Ms. Goodwitch just... acknowledge no student would ever follow the rules?" Yang wondered as they stood at the gates, dressed proudly with aviator sunglasses covering her face and her emblem clear on her clothes. She knew she'd attract attention, one of the heroes of the War of Stars that had reclaimed the dragon continent. And boy did she want it.

"More like she's too busy to bother chastising them herself," Jaune suggested with a glance up at the emerald tower where the woman worked. "I mean, there's a reason we never saw Ozpin, right?" He tugged his new white Pumpkin Pete hoodie further over his head, having changed out of his armor so no one would recognize him. He pushed his sunglasses harder onto the bridge of his nose so his face wouldn't be easily seen. He was, after all, still a wanted man.

"Maybe your team didn't," Yang retorted, snorting.

She put her real hand in a pocket and gestured towards the quad. "Ready to go?"

Jaune took a deep breath. "Yeah," he said. The two, in tandem, walked onto the grounds of their old school, moving swiftly towards the main body of the building. Ruby had said she had a surprise for Jaune in her office and had asked they meet her at Beacon. Yang personally thought she just wanted to brag about the fact that she had an office now, feeling all big and important. Still, they'd come. She'd get to make fun of Ruby's students, some of whom were older than the young woman. She bet Ruby had to beat up the more... 'confident' of the students on the first couple of days.

"Yang, what if I get recognized..?" Yang heard her partner's nervous voice whine.

The blonde girl rolled her eyes. "They'll be too focused on me to notice you, Jaune."

"I –" he began, indignant. Then, after examining her for a moment: "Yeah, that's probably true."

"See? Isn't it fun being honest with yourself?" Yang asked as she threw up and arm and turned her head directly to the left, smiling and posing for a 'secret' picture. She turned back to Jaune. "I am a star, burning bright. You are merely in my orbit."

"Good to see your ego hasn't gotten big," Jaune muttered dryly.

"Oh, Jaune. Ego implies it's not true," Yang pointed out, voice saccharine as she looked over her glasses and winked at another picture being taken past Jaune.

"Never mind. It started big." Jaune shook his head. "I bet it's hiding in the hair. Ever think of a haircut?"

"Ever think of not wanting to die?" Yang asked, hair lighting up and her red eyes becoming bright and visible through her shades. It died down after Jaune whimpered an apology out. "Besides, you got more than enough haircut for the both of us, Jaune. Why'd you decide on short hair?"

 _Doesn't look like OJ_ , Jaune thought to himself as he thought of his new haircut, short and vaguely reminiscent of Qrow's look, though the bangs were significantly shorter and parted to the right side as his hair had before. "I, uh, admire your uncle?" he said, hoping that would work.

Yang didn't question it, even if she knew there was more to it than that. "Makes sense."

Jaune let out a relieved breath. He was done having people worry about him in regards to his evil twin. "So... what do you think Ruby wants to show us?"

"Other than her office? Saying, 'Look at me, I'm Ruby Rose and I'm important! I'm the Bee's Knees!'" Yang said, taking on a poor mockery of her sister's voice. She shook her head and laughed. "Not that she's _completely_ wrong."

The two entered the main lobby and moved towards the main elevator. Ruby's office was Glynda's old one had been, located not far from the top floor of the large tower that housed Glynda's new office as Headmistress of Beacon Academy. "You're not jealous?" Jaune mocked, hitting her with his shoulder.

"Why? I get to go on adventures and she's stuck in this tower," Yang replied honestly. She pressed the button to summon the elevator and placed her hands behind her head. "There's plenty of time to be a fogey teacher when I'm old."

"I'm a fogey, huh?"

Yang and Jaune twirled on their heels to see Ruby standing there, fist on her hip, a large Scroll covered in notes, and an annoyed glare on her face as she stared at her sister. She was tapping her toes very fast, almost jittery in her movements. Yang hoped her sister hadn't gotten into caffeine again... she still had the shivers when she thought about Ruby's thirteenth birthday when they'd stolen some of their dad's coffee. "Oh, Ruby! Hey..."

Ruby shook her head. "I'll have you know everyone loves my class," Ruby said indignantly as she walked up and removed her insignia, placing it next to the button. The button lit up, activated, and she pressed it. She yawned, dark circles under her eyes becoming apparent."We all lock our offices when we're not in them. I learned my lesson when someone tried to sneak in and try to steal the Keyblade."

"But it can't be stolen," Jaune said in confusion.

Ruby grinned. "Cardin still got caught trying."

"Idiot," Yang sighed, grinning nonetheless.

"It's so much fun being able to give people detention and making them write papers. I don't even read them!" Ruby said excitedly. The elevator arrived after a moment and she gestured for the others to enter before her, then entered and pressed a button for her office.

"Just wait till you see the view!" Ruby shouted after a moment, and she began bouncing up and down in excitement. "It's so cool!"

"It can't be that..." Yang's words were cut off as they exited the elevator. There was a stunning view, the sun glittering off of the shining city of Vale below the cliffs. Clouds in the air looked like paint on canvas, and the small airships traveling around the city sent the twinkling light of active Dust streaming towards the room like stars. The ocean stretched out even further beyond the city, blue melting into the sky at the horizon. "Damn."

"Told you," Ruby said as she walked into her office and sat down on top of her desk. Jaune moved in past the still stunned Yang and looked around. Ruby's office was...

A little kid's room.

There were tons of Grimm and Huntsman figurines filling up a book shelf at the back in the corner, all of them arranged like they were about to have a massive battle. At the top were action figures of Ruby and Sora themselves, Keyblades hefted over their shoulders as the limited edition Neoshadow figures died at their feet. Everything smelled like chocolate chip cookies, because they were _everywhere_. Just plates of them on every table, including Ruby's desk. In fact, she had one in either hand now and was chowing down. And... "Zwei?" Jaune wondered as the tiny dog bounded up and stared up at him. The impossibly strong dog just barked excitedly and jumped into his arms, tackling him to the ground.

"Zwei, don't hurt him!" Ruby shouted through the cookie in her mouth.

"Ruby, this is insane!" Yang shouted, ignoring the fact that Jaune was now flat on his back with her dog pawing at his chest as it begged for attention. "That view is... They do know you're a kid, right?"

"Hey! I'm cool. And grown up. And collected. And _cooool."_

Even Zwei laughed at that one.

"Rubes, come on," Yang said before gesturing at the cookies. And the toys. And the dog. And the giant plush wolf in the corner.

"I'm still cool," Ruby protested, arms crossed over her chest and pouting like a two year old denied her favorite toy.

Jaune sat up, petting the dog now sleeping in his lap. "Well, regardless of the fact you're a five year old... what did you want to show us?" he asked, holding back laughter at the younger girl's face.

Ruby brightened immediately. "Oh! Right!" She shouted before rolling over her desk and hitting the ground on the other side. Yang and Jaune glanced at each other then Yang tried to look over it and Jaune around. Ruby exploded upward, hair slightly a mess. "I'm okay!"

"Are you?" Jaune asked, pushing himself to his feet while continuing to pet the dog in his arms. HE grimaced. "Have you slept recently?"

"Not since I flew back here," Ruby responded. She looked around and picked up a mug from her desk, then took a deep swig. She stopped and looked at the both of them. "Coffee?"

"That was... Ruby that was two days ago!" Yang shouted.

"I had to catch up on work," Ruby said as she took another drink.

Jaune grimaced. "You and caffeine is a... scary mix." Yang grimaced... he had no idea. She immediately started to block out the memories again.

"But anyways, the surprise!" Ruby shouted, disappearing behind her desk for another second. Jaune and Yang looked at one another for a couple seconds until, finally, Ruby appeared again. "Got it!"

She was holding a thin white, blade shaped object about as long as Jaune's gauntlets, about as wide as a small Scroll. It had a pair of small clamps on one side that looked large enough to go around Jaune's bracers. "I think you're gonna love this, Jaune," Ruby said earnestly. She placed it on the table. "Your dad and I made it a little while ago, it's um... well, you'll see."

She moved her hand down and gestured at a location for his scroll. Getting the idea, he put the dog down on the desk and pulled out his Scroll. After placing the earpiece in his ear so he could still use the device, he took the Scroll and placed it in the new item's slot. "Now say 'Sol.' Go on!"

"S...ol?" Jaune said, unsure of what was going to happen.

Zwei yelped as he was woken up by the device beside him on the desk exploded outwards, edges expanding into the shape of a small, kite buckler. Jaune blinked and picked up the device, turning it over in his hands. It was a pure white, save for the familiar golden image of his family insignia on the outer face. It looked just like the shield he had lost when he'd... "You and my dad made this?" he asked, stunned by how grateful he felt.

"Mhm," Ruby said, smiling wide. "We had a little bit of materials left over after making your armor, and some more from your dad's equipment in the War. So... say 'Aurora.'"

"Aurora?" Jaune asked, and it was his turn to yelp as the front edge of the kite buckler began to glow, yellow Dust coating it, and its energy extended forward, easily past where his hand would be, to form a small blade of energy. "It... It's so cool!"

"I know, right!?" Ruby asked, bouncing up and down again. She looked over at it. "But you have to be careful. This mode drains a lot of energy and you'll need to charge it in your Gummi Ship when you're not fighting. Shield and inactive should always be fine."

"Ruby, I – thanks," Jaune said, looking up from the item in his hands at the Keyblade wielder. "It means a lot."

"No problem, Jaune," Ruby said, suddenly very calm. She gave him a lopsided grin. "I'm glad you like it."

Some time and many cookies later, Jaune and Yang were sitting together on the cliff overlooking the emerald forest, reminiscing on who they used to be and how much they had changed. "You know, if you'd asked... me," Jaune began, gesturing with his head at the launch pads built into the grass, "where I thought I'd be in a few years, I never would have guessed astronaut with a key for a sword. And certainly not someone with this many friends."

"Honestly? Everything except the robot hand," Yang stated. She looked over. "What? I thought it'd be a foot. Y'know. Like a pirate."

"I don't know why I expected anything different," Jaune said. He raised his new shield in front of him. "'Sol.'" The shield popped into existence, revealing his insignia once more. "Nox." The shield disappeared. His arm slammed back into the grass and he remained silent for a while. "Yang, thanks for everything. I know we were supposed to save your mom, but then we got all caught up in my problems so... Just, thanks, okay?"

Yang snorted. "Hey, don't get all sentimental. We're only... in the place that started the adventures where some of the best and worst things to ever happen to us happened. There's no need for that..." Yang snorted again and shook her head. She leaned all the way back on the grass and sighed contentedly. "Tch... yeah, thank you, too, Jaune."

"What did I do?" the Keyblade Wielder asked nervously.

Yang shrugged. "You kept me going, okay? Even if you thought you weren't doing much, you were still keeping me grounded. And you saved my life a couple times," she said. Her face became hard and her eyes glowed red. "Not that I'll admit it to anyone else. The myth of the Yang needs no help."

"Aw, that's... sweet?" Jaune wondered before leaning back in the grass as well. _Myth of the Yang? Wow..._

The two remained silent for a while, just laying beside each other and staring up at the now starry sky. "Where do you think he is?" Jaune asked quietly.

Yang sighed. No point in asking _who_ the lovable idiot meant. "Hopefully? Eaten by some Shadow out there," she said, eyes turning red again. She looked over at Jaune and the lilac returned. "Realistically? Probably one of the worlds we've visited."

Jaune scoffed and tightened his fists around the grass. "Yeah, makes sense." He turned his head to meet Yang's eyes. "What?"

She blinked and looked away. "Jaune, you do know you don't need to worry about it, right?" She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "That you're anything like him."

"Yang, I'm over th -"

"Uh-uhn. Can't lie to me, I've been living with you for a while now, Dumber."

"Really? You're using Kirito's nicknames now?" Jaune wondered dryly.

Yang narrowed her eyes angrily and warned, "Jaune, stay on topic."

The Keyblade wielder groaned. "So what if I'm a little worried about it. I'm just... Yang..."

"No, _I'm_ Yang. And there's no just about it," Yang joked, this one earning an actual laugh from her partner. "Wait, I thought I wasn't funny?"

"Broken clocks can be right," Jaune retorted indigantly.

"Hm... Anyways, you were saying?"

Jaune groaned again. "Do I have to?"

"Yep."

"Now?"

"Yep."

"...Yep?"

"Yep."

Jaune sighed. "Okay. Maybe we aren't the same. But we could be. And there's enough that already is that I –" He ran a hand through his now short hair. "I need to make sure we're not."

"And the real reason for the haircut comes out," Yang said quietyly.

"Yeah, yeah, make fun of me," Jaune sighed. He covered his face. "I know it's stupid."

"No, I... Sympathize. If it makes you feel better, that's good," Yang said. She rolled onto her side and rested her head on her hand so her face wouldn't touch the ground."But you don't need it."

"You think that any similarity between you and OJ makes you the same, right?" Yang asked, though Jaune didn't respond. "Well it doesn't. Sure, he's got your face, your voice, and your determination. But he doesn't have your _Heart_. You're strong, Jaune." She looked over at his confused face. "What? You are. And if you ever need someone to remind you, I'll be right next to you to drive you on every day. I'll be there when you kick OJ's butt and fix all this. Just... do the same for me with my mom, okay?"

Jaune bit the inside of his cheek. "Okay, Yang. You got it."

"Good... Now, how about we go steal all those cookies from Ruby's office?"

"I was worried you'd never ask!"

As they left, another figure melted out of the shadows. "He lays there with her, ignoring your ghost..." OJ muttered as he walked towards where Jaune had been laying. He cast a glare at Yang's spot before turning back to the launchpads and moving slowly, reverently, towards the one that Pyrrha had once been launched from. He sat down in front of it and stared at the symbol on its face, that of the Kingdom of Vale. "I... I can't believe that this is where we first met. Here, so long ago. It... It seems absurd." OJ laughed and ran a hand through his shoulder length hair. "He wants to be different from me, he wants to forget. Why? I don't understand it, I..." He sighed, defeated by his confusion. "I wish you were here, that you could tell me... But that ended when you died at _Cinder's_ hands. When you were stolen from me."

He placed his hand on the launchpad. "Are you proud of me? I killed her for you. She asked if I believed in destiny. I do. It is my _destiny_ to find you, to be reunited with you. I will not rest until it happens." He stood up and moved towards where Jaune had been laying. "Just like it is your destiny, simply because we are the same, Jaune. Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos. Anything less is..." His head turned towards the Yang shaped depression in the grass and black flames erupted into being, burning away the shape. " _Disgusting._ "

He turned towards the forest and summoned the Kingdom Key D to his hand, examining its dulled silvers, bloody red, and tarnished gold. "And I will make sure that you recognize that as well, Jaune, even if I have to kill all of your so-called friends to do it. Even if you hate me now, you will recognize that I am right... and none of them deserve you." Then OJ walked forward, stepping off of the cliff. The wind passed through his hair, whipping it around until he summoned an inky black Corridor of Darkness beneath him. He passed through the doorway after but a moment and disappeared, slamming the portal shut behind him so he could not be followed.

He left nothing behind but a human sized patch of burnt grass that smelled of hatred, a shade of the death that his crusade would bring if he was victorious.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune and Yang were checking and double checking their luggage as they stood outside of the Keyblade Temple, triple checking to make sure that they had everything they would need for their journey to continue. Argent had brought a whole suitcase for his son, a gift from his mother with 'extra underoos for my extra special man.' Jaune had nearly turned bone white at Yang's stifled laughter following his dad's failure to whisper that message. Or had he done it on purpose? Jaune shook his head and checked the battery on his Scroll. Full, and so was his new buckler-weapon, Saffron. "Where do you think we should head first?" Yang asked as she went through all of her jackets, trying to choose which one she wanted to wear. She had removed the brown jacket and its side tails and was trying to decide between two. "Oh, and which one?"

"Uh... Huh?" Jaune muttered, pointing towards the black one.

"Good." She tossed the black one in the suitcase and began to slide the other jacket, this one a yellow denim, over her shoulders.

"What? But you just -"

"And you thought I'd trust your taste, Pumpkin Pete?" Yang asked as she gestured at the purple rabbit on Jaune's new, white sweatshirt.

"Hey, he's... cool..." Jaune muttered indignantly.

Yang zipped up the diagonal zip jacket halfway up, leaving the lapels folded down and her new white shirt visible. She folded the sleeves up a bit until there was enough room for Ember Celica to extend, then reached into her bag and pulled out a red bandana with a cross embroidered into it. She pulled her hair up and looped it through, creating a wild, bushy ponytail reminiscent of her mother's.

Jaune rolled his eyes and began to pull his armor back on. "Too much white, Jaune," Yang said, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

"Yeah, well... I needed a change," Jaune muttered as he clamped the armor tight around his chest before moving on to the Keyblade Armor's left pauldron. Next came his bracers, the left one now with Saffron attached tight enough that it wouldn't move. He also gave Pyrrha's sash on his hip a tug, making sure it was tight as well. "And... done." He ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. "How do I look?"

"Mmmm..." Yang began, putting her finger on her chin as she studied him. Finally, she sarcastically remarked, "Well, it won't be _completely_ embarrassing to be seen with you."

"Well who would be looking at me?" Jaune asked with a dry glare at the girl.

Yang looked herself up and down. "Good point. No one will." She struck a pose. "I'm just too pretty."

"Miss Xiao Long, please, your father would not approve." Yang and Jaune jumped as Ozpin and Sora appeared, the both of them looking exhausted as the green light flashed around them.

Ozpin himself looked... old. Not too much older than when they had last seen him, but older nonetheless. His gray hair had turned slightly white and there were slight wrinkles on his face, as if the man was finally showing his age. Well, the age of a man in his mid to late forties, at least. Ozpin glanced between his former students. "Mister Arc, Miss Xiao Long. It is good to see you both," he said as he clasped his hands at the small of his back.

"Hey guys," Sora said solemnly, his ever-present smile serious. He walked up and placed a hand on their shoulders. He looked up at the temple. "Pretty impressive, right?"

"It's... big," Jaune agreed simply.

"I prefer Beacon," Yang said with a shrug.

Sora frowned and shook his head. "Well, if you guys saw the inside you'd -"

"I'm sure, but we are in a hurry you know. Besides, who wants to see an empty school?" Yang interjected, a cruel grin crossing her face.

"Ouch..." Sora muttered. He shook his head. "Fine, but it'll be great when we have students. You wait!"

"For now, however, it remains a symbol of the power of the Four Kingdoms united," Ozpin said as he walked up. He looked at Jaune and frowned, his sad eyes disappearing behind his sunglasses. "You have my apologies, Mister Arc. It is too soon for you to have to fight this kind of war so soon after the last, especially one that seems determined to seek you out."

"Well, it was Sora's turn for a break," Jaune half-joked.

Sora shrugged and crossed his arms. "It was getting tiring being the bad guys' main target." He looked over at Jaune. "I'd take it away from you in a minute, though."

"I know," Jaune said graciously. He looked at the two of them. "So... what's the plan?"

Sora and Oz glanced at one another, then back at the two warriors. "You two have a deeper connection with these worlds that OJ is seeking than anyone else we could send," Ozpin began, tenting his hands in front of his body and gesturing at them both in turn.

"It almost feels like you were supposed to find those worlds. Chosen to help them keep themselves safe," Sora cut in. He placed his hands behind his head. "So the new plan... is the old plan!"

Ozpin picked up the explanation as Jaune and Yang replied with nothing but confused stares. The former Headmaster said, "The two of you continue your journey, traveling to worlds as your Hearts lead you." He held up one hand and began to count. "The nugget of Darkness, the Hogyoku, the world seed, and the seed that births Darkness in a Heart. These worlds you have been drawn to have called you for a reason, and they will likely call Mercury and Emerald as well as the Nobody of Miss Xiao Long's mother. You all have a part to play in this battle, and it is likely you will cross paths with them and OJ. Until we have more information... it is business as usual. Go where you are called, offer aid where it is needed."

"And kick butt whenever possible!" Sora finished, throwing his fist into the air.

Jaune and Yang traded a glance. "Well... if you insist," Yang said, grinning mischievously.

"I assumed you'd be up for that challenge," Sora responded, grinning..

"Oh, before we go, I wanted to ask you something, Sora," Jaune said, jumping towards his luggage and digging through it. "Where... is... it... Ah! Here!" Jaune tore out a small item and held it out to Sora. "Is this what I think it is?"

Sora blinked and looked down. It was a small, pentagonal item made of brown stone. There was a stylized skull over an 'X' at the center of the item, black, empty eye sockets and four teeth. It was connected to a red rope that ended in a silver latch. Sora reached down for a moment, then stopped and looked up at Jaune, silently asking permission. The blonde warrior nodded and Sora reached down, picking it up. He examined it for a few moments, holding onto the pentagonal insignia and bringing it close to his right eye. "Hm..." He held out his left hand and summoned the Master Keeper, holding it by the blade. He pulled the Keychain off of the weapon and tried to attach the one Jaune had given him... only for it to slam into an invisible wall. He blinked once and pushed against it only for the Keyblade and its natural Keychain to vanish completely. He bit the inside of his cheek and tossed the badge in the air, easily catching it. He gave it another once over before handing it back to Jaune. "If this is a Keychain, Jaune, it only belongs to you. What it'll do to your Keyblade..." Sora shrugged. "But it won't work for anyone else, so you'll just have to see."

Jaune looked down at the item. "Whatever it is, I am willing to wager that you have it for a reason," Ozpin added on. Jaune looked up at the man's serious demeanor staring down at him. "So make sure you do not miss the moment when it comes. The mark of a good warrior is recognizing what he has and how it is meant to be used. I trust you are more than capable of that, Mister Arc."

"Aw, you're getting complimented!" Yang shouted, jumping ahead and wrapping her arm around Jaune's shoulder. "See, we all think you're cool!"

"Really?" Jaune asked.

"Well.. 'cool,'" Yang joked.

"You're 'cool,' too," Jaune said.

Yang grinned and forced her hair to light up. "No. I'm hot."

"... Dammit, Yang," Jaune sighed, his gaze falling to the ground in sheer horror and disappointment at how much effort she put into that pun. "That was..."

"Straight fire?"

"..."


	18. Hollow Victories

**AN:**

 **Hey, sorry this took so long. I was busy with finals, and writing my first DnD campaing, the graduating, then settling into my new job. It's been hectic, and I've only found found time to write in the past few days. Still, now that I've settled in, I think I have an actual way to write. I hope it's more common to put a chapter up, but it might be hard sometimes. Still, I'm not giving up. I love the SMHS stories a ton.**

 **In other news, happy Fourth of July everybody!**

 **Anyways, time for some long overdue responses.**

 **To Gamelover41592: I'm glad you liked last chapter, and the last joke especially. To my (non-existent) shame, my sense of humor and Yang's are pretty much the same, so it's nice to occasionally have a good one.**

 **To Guest: I don't think relating to OJ is a problem for the story. In my opinion, you need to have a way to relate to even the most insane characters because even insane humans are exactly that. Human. It might be twisted sometimes, but they have human desires and hopes.**

 **To Guest Chapter 1: That's fair, though I would disagree that he had no romantic interest in Pyrrha whatsoever. He clearly did throughout season three and at the end of season two. Maybe it wasn't love, maybe it was. I certainly believe in love at first sight, and even more so in terms of Kingdom Hearts, Fairy Tales, and RWBY, so I don't think it's that much of a leap.**

 **To scmk: Oh, I'm sure that Yang's sense of humor will land her in trouble one day. It has for me. I also agree with you in terms of OJ being worse than the director and that there is some manner of similarity in what they are doing. And you're right about those differences in reality, and that's going to come into play later.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: IT'S SO GOOD TO BE BACK, TOO! Don't worry about missing a chapterly review, as I clearly can't make a monthly chapter to my own shame. I'm sorry about leaving you hanging, but I'm glad you're excited for the next chapter. So am I!**

 **To Rev1395 Chapter 6: Oh, hell yeah, those worlds will be revisited. Every world is revisited at least once, most of them twice.**

 _ **Chapter 18:Hollow Victories**_

"This... isn't Soul Society," Yang remarked, glancing around the large, white, and empty expanse of sand that surrounded them. The sky had no stars, or at least none that were visible. When they had arrived, they could see them glistening before they were sent beneath the cover of some ancient Darkness that obscured this world.

"What gave it away?" Jaune asked dryly. He tripped over his feet and fought to keep his footing as he tried climbing up a dune. He yelped and landed face first in the sand. "Ow..."

"I think... the lack of swords. Yeah, that did it," Yang joked. She groaned and picked Jaune up, carrying him all the way up the dune before she put him down. "If you like me, Jaune, could you find a better way of telling me than _falling for me_?"

Jaune was trying a new response to these jokes – no response. He narrowed his eyes and gazed at the horizon. "Is that... a castle?" he asked quietly. He looked over at Yang. "Do you see it?"

Yang turned an angry glare towards him, and did not respond at all. "Wh- You're angry I didn't even _groan?_ " Jaune wondered as he met her glare. Her eyes narrowed. "Fine... groan?"

Yang sighed, disappointed still, but turned her gaze towards the horizon. She frowned and pulled out her Scroll, zooming in with the camera function. "That's not a castle... that's... What's bigger than a castle?"

"A palace?"

"A mountain!" Yang shouted. She shook her head and pocketed the Scroll. "Whoever lives there has one _tiny_ problem."

"With out luck, Aizen just heard you insult him..." Jaune groaned, slapping a palm over his forehead. He looked over at Yang's unashamed grin. "You're way too proud of such an easy joke."

"Every joke deserves to be told," Yang said with a bow.

Jaune shook his head. "Just when I thought you might be developing a better – not good, but _better_ – sense of humor," he groaned, wagging his finger at Yang during his interjection into his own sentence before returning a hand over his eyes.

"Maybe you're getting a better sense of humor," Yang remarked, voice light with laughter.

"Don't even suggest that!" Jaune hissed. He knew it was true, but... Ugh, he didn't want his sense of humor to coincide that much with hers!

"Look, I – "Yang stopped and looked around. She bit her cheek and held one hand up to her ear. "Do... you hear that?"

Jaune stopped and focused on his ears. "Is that..?" It sounded like a thousand small somethings grinding together. Stone, of some kind. It made him think of the feeling of... "The sand!"

His warning came too late, however, as both he and Yang were thrown into the air. "Aaah!" Jaune shouted as he soared upward, summoning the Keyblade as his upward flight began to slow down. "What is that!?"

It was a monster, almost three stories tall and made entirely of sand. It had a horrifying, evil mask for a face with a gaping maw of a mouth filled with sharp, pointy teeth and the top of its head resembling a rook from chess. Its body was human shaped, with a 'loincloth' gathered around its body. And there was a massive hold in its chest. "INTRUDERS!" the monster screamed, one of its massive arms soaring up to swat at the two warriors. Sand fell from its arms as they moved, but they mostly retained their shape even as they approached Jaune and Yang.

"Hell if I know!" Yang snapped, readying Ember Celica. "Is it a Heartless?"

Jaune swiped at the arm with the Keyblade, picturing carving it apart like he had seen Sora do with buildings larger than this. The Kingdom Key slammed into the monster's waiting arm, the blade slicing cleanly through sand –

Only to get stuck in the middle of the massive arm. "Uh... Oh, God..." The sand began to draw his Keyblade further in, swarming around the weapon and up his arms. "AGH! Yang, help!"

"FIRAGA!" Yang shouted from above, having been thrown farther than the heavily armored Jaune. A ball of pure flames rocketed past the Keyblade wielder, slamming into the sand monster and exploding. The creature shrieked in pain and rage, tossing Jaune away as it reacted viscerally to the damage done to it. Yang landed beside Jaune and pointed up at the creature with her thumb, the super heated crater on its chest turning into warped and broken glass through which they could see warped versions of the far away towers. " _Clearly_ , I'm amazing!"

The monster roared and the glass exploded into a thousand pieces, falling to the ground as sand swarmed up from the ground to replace what was lost. "When it comes to the types of enemies we fight, he goes against the grain," Jaune said. He shuddered. "I... worked for that one? Ugh..."

"You get used to it," Yang said. She slammed her fists together and grinned as her eyes turned blood red and her hair began to catch aflame.

Jaune groaned and readied the Keyblade again. "Let's just kill this thing," he groaned, raising it above his right shoulder.

The two charged the monster together, running straight at the incoming claw of sand rocketing towards them. Yang jumped between the thumb and index finger, her hair trailing through the fingers and leaving behind a tiny trail of glass along the side of its hand. Yang lashed out with her fist, sending another fireball at the creature's face and causing a portion of its head to explode and leave behind a crater of glass as it roared in pain. Jaune was behind her, carving through the finger of the glass monster's hand, moving past it and landing on the monster's arm so he could continue running up the monster's body. "At least I can cut that off," Jaune muttered to himself as he cast a glance back at the hand, sand already flooding to replace the destroyed finger. He groaned and tried his best to ignore it, turning his hand instead to the other hand swiping down at him from above. He leaped forward, soaring just past the claw and approaching Yang, who was falling now.

"Give me a boost?" he asked, holding her hand out.

Jaune nodded in understanding and held his Keyblade out, letting her grab onto it and spinning mid air. He released at the top of the arc, sending both her and the weapon soaring back at the monster's shrieking, gaping maw that now reached down to its chest. "Eat this!" Yang snapped, a fireball larger than her earlier Firaga coating either hand. Her right hand, then her left, flew forward to launch the magical attacks. The creature roared and devoured the explosions, glass coating its mouth and shattering under the pressure of its bite to become finely ground sand itself. The monster's claw shot up from the sand beneath Yang and wrapped around her, its claws locking tight enough that she couldn't escape even with all of her strength.

"Yang!" Jaune shouted, sprinting towards her to try and get her out of the growing whirlpool of sand. He threw his Keyblade out in front of him, trying to summon up a Blizzaga to freeze the ground and give him a temporary path, only for it to fail as only a small burst of snowflake shaped ice flew out, a Blizzard spell at best. His foot hit the ice nonetheless, and it was swept away by the force of the swirling and he was immediately dragged in. "DAMMIT!"

He was soon dragged towards the center, arms length from Yang herself. "Jaune, you okay?" she sputtered, trying to keep her head above the sand as she reached out for him.

"I –" he coughed and tried to get above the sand as well. "I should be asking you!"

"Well... I was..." she admitted through the sand she was struggling to spit out. She reached as far as she could and somehow managed to grab onto his hand. "J-Jaune... Gotta... fight..!"

"Yang, we've got to..." his head dipped under the sand and he tried to claw his way up, only for her to yank him up.

"Yang, we've got to -" But Jaune couldn't say anything more, a black and pink swirl of energy exploded around Jaune and he flew upward, soaring out of the whirlpool. " _YANG!_ What the hell!?"

Yang stared up at him, still treading sand. _Well... I didn't think this through._ And then she sank beneath the sand as it pulled her too deep and the world turned black.

Above, Jaune was freaking out. "YANG!" he screamed, vainly struggling against the spell still holding him aloft. He summoned the Keyblade and blindly slashed, trying to find a way to cut out of the spell, only for it to send him spinning, face turning a dull green. "Yang, you have to fight! Come on!"

"Dance, Sode No Shirayuki!"

Jaune blinked in confusion at that. "Uh, what?" he wondered, before the whirlpool was frozen solid, then shattered in an upward explosion. Ice chunks flew everywhere, containing the sand that made up the monster and sending it soaring away. And, unfrozen because of the fire trailing from her head, was a semi-conscious Yang. "Yang!" He reached out, dismissing the Keyblade and trying to grab her hand. "Yang, I -" Then the spell ended and he fell right past her. "Oh, God!"

As he tumbled towards the sand, he pondered the many questions he would never be able to answer. What was the best flavor of Pumpkin Pete's? Who had defeated that monster? And finally... wasn't it Yang's birthday soon? This whole screwed up time thing was not helping him keep track.

Luckily for him, he had a chance to find the answer to these questions. Which, by the way, were respectively cookies and cream, Rukia Kuchiki, and _very._ "Oh, hi," he said from Rukia's arms. She blinked and dropped him, disappearing in a blur of lines. Jaune yelped as he hit the ground and she returned a moment later, Yang's unconscious form held over her shoulder. "Uh... Rukia, right?"

"What the hell happened to you two?" she asked before carefully putting Yang down next to Jaune. She stood up again, brandishing her snow white sword for a moment before letting the white fade, floating upward like snow in the wind to reveal a much more simple katana – a Zanpakuto, if Jaune remembered right. She twirled in once and stuck into the scabbard on her left hip. She was dressed now exactly as Ichigo and the Soul Reapers had been, all black with white underneath. Sandals with white socks. "You stood up to my brother before and that Hollow gave you trouble?" Her confused features turned angry and she slammed the side of her hand on the top of Jaune's head, eliciting a cry of pain from the Keyblade Wielder. "How dare you insult Soul Reapers like that!?"

"Agh! I'm sorry!" he shouted in reply, throwing his hands up to block the repeated blows. "Please, I'm sorry!"

"You'd better be!" she snapped, finally relenting. She yanked Jaune up. "You two are going to help me find Ichigo in this place now!"

"Wh – He's here?" Jaune wondered through the sweatshirt yanked over his mouth. He smiled. "Well, what kind of friend wouldn't help?"

"Ugh... I've eaten grain before but this just awful..." Yang groaned, pushing herself to her feet and shaking her head.

Rukia grimaced. "Is she okay? That sounded... crazy," she said as she let go of Jaune's hoodie.

"Honestly? If she hadn't made that joke I'd be more worried," he replied after breathing a sigh of relief.

He walked up and hugged Yang, picking her up slightly. Yang yelped and her eyes went wide, surprised at the sudden affection. "I'm so glad you're okay!" Jaune hugged tighter for a moment, then dropped her and glared into her eyes. "But next time, don't do something stupid like separating us!"

Yang groaned. "Fine..." She sighed and shook her head. "Now who saved -" Yang blinked then looked past him at the clearly confused Rukia. "Oh! Samur-ice! Hey!"

 _ **S M H S**_

The group had traveled for hours through the empty expanse of Hueco Mundo, through sand. And sand. Some more sand. Oh, almost forgot.

Sand.

Yang was getting exhausted by this whole annoying side of this world. Ugh, she just wanted one thing to happen. After that Hollow thing – some sort of monster like the Heartless where the Soul instead the Heart got corrupted – attacked, there hadn't been anything interesting for the entire day. Eventually, after making some sort of progress towards Las Noches, the giant castle at the center of Hueco Mundo, they had decided to make camp.

Jaune had removed his armor to prepare for sleep, knowing that resting in it would be a huge, painful problem. He still remembered the aches from trying to sleep in it once before. Never again.

This had given him and Rukia something to bond over. Cartoon rabbits. The Soul Reaper girl was obsessed with anything rabbit themed, apparently, and had immediately assaulted Jaune in an effort to learn where he had gotten the sweatshirt and if he would be able to get one for her somehow. He promised he'd try, if only to calm her, then had begun explaining how much he loved the cereal. That had only caused another round of questions on if he could get her some of that, too.

Eventually, Yang had grown bored of that, too. After starting a fire with her magic and unrolling her sleeping mat, she'd slammed her hands together, the resulting clap cutting off the warrior's questions and giving Jaune some breathing room. "Okay... so, what's happening. You didn't talk much while we were walking."

Rukia sighed and suddenly became very business like, her serious face reminding Jaune eerily of Byakuya's glare. "Of course, you deserve to know." She altered her position to sit on her shins, hands resting atop her knees. "So... Aizen's Arrancar –"

"His what?" Jaune asked, raising his hand above his head.

"Is he..?" Rukia began, turning to ask Yang only to see she also had her hand above her head.

Rukia sighed. "What do you two know about what's been going on since we last met?"

Jaune scratched his cheek. "Um..."

"We've been dealing with personal demons," Yang clarified quietly, though her tone made it clear she didn't want to explain further for now. She laid down on her chest and propped herself up with her elbows. "We haven't had a lot of time to pay attention to stuff here."

Rukia glanced between them, then nodded. "Okay. I get it," she said, understanding and not asking any questions about it. "Well... ever since you helped Ichigo save me, Soul Society has been preparing for war. Aizen's declaration created chaos, and Ichigo running around crazy didn't help much. Still, eventually the Soul Society was able to start investigating everything that Aizen had been planning. For centuries, apparently."

"That... is the second longest evil plan I've heard of," Jaune said simply.

"Seco – that's absurdly long!"

"Eh, try 1000 years," Yang remarked with a grin. "I think we win."

"A thousand years... I will have to hear about this eventually," Rukia said, intrigued and rubbing chin. She shook her head. "Ach! But later." She sighed and nodded. "Anyways, the eventually found out that he had planned to create creatures called 'Arrancar.' These are monsters created from Hollows using the Hyogyoku. Hollows that look human. Hollows... that have the powers and strength of a Soul Reaper."

Rukia shivered and moved closer to the fire. "They attacked us, they..." her hand went to her gut and pain flashed across her face. "It wasn't even a fight."

"Are you okay?" Yang asked. She placed her robotic prosthetic against the white sand "I know what... fighting someone before you're ready can do to a person."

Rukia looked over and nodded, a sad look of understanding flashing through her eyes. "I will be fine. I am ready now."

Yang nodded. "I know that feeling, too," she said, offering a real grin.

Jaune frowned, worried, and turned his gaze to the castle. "So this is, what, a vengeance mission?"

"No. It's a rescue mission," Rukia said, her own gaze turning towards Las Noches as well. "They took one of Ichigo's and my friends, kidnapped her during an attack. It was Orihime, do you remember her?" She clenched her fists against the black cloth she wore. The tiny woman growled, annoyed at someone. Probably Ichigo. "That idiot was told not to search for her, to not rescue here and -" Her features softened. "So of course he went, and I couldn't leave him hanging."

"What is it with you guys getting kidnapped?" Yang asked irreverently in an effort to ease the tension.

"Yang!" Jaune hissed in disbelief she'd ask that.

Rukia glowered for a moment, then shook her head. "It does seem to be a pattern, doesn't it," she muttered dryly. She chuckled and shook her head, slightly amused by the entire situation. "Maybe next time we'll be going to rescue Ichigo instead."

Yang laughed once. "He'd make a funny damsel in distress!" she said, imagining it with a smirk.

"So... what kind of thing should we be expecting?" Jaune wondered, deciding to be the one to break the good mood because someone had to. "On a scale of... Ganju to your brother?"

Rukia grimaced. "The Espada? Byakuya. The others? Kukakku?"

Jaune groaned, it was going to be a long day. "The Espada? How many of those guys do we get to fight?" Yang asked with a grin.

"There are ten."

Yang blanched a little. "Oh... I was hoping you'd say like... three or four?"

"Ten," she repeated.

Jaune groaned and fell face first into his bed mat. Of course he'd be up against ten Byakuyas with his abilities on the fritz again. "This is going to be a long few days," he groaned.

 _ **S M H S**_

Jaune and Yang peeked over the edge of a huge sand dune, staring down at the entrance to Aizen's mountain sized castle with Rukia at their side. "It _looks_ unguarded," Jaune pointed out cautiously. He and the others ducked behind the dune. "Which seems odd. We haven't seen anything since that sand guy three days ago."

"Maybe Ichigo cleared out the guards when he came this way?" Rukia suggested. She frowned and placed a hand on her chin. "He's gotten a lot stronger recently, but... I don't know."

"Not enough of the building randomly destroyed? Too few dead monsters? No trails of his blood and staggering, limping footsteps?" Yang asked bluntly. She glanced over at the annoyed glare from Rukia and laughed. "What, too real for you?"

"Regardless," Rukia growled, "Jaune's right. There's no way that we're going to get in there without a fight. This has to be a front to get us to drop our guards before an ambush."

"Wow, someone admitting I'm right. What are the odds?" Jaune asked dryly. He looked over at Yang. "You want to try it? Just once?"

"Ha! In your dreams," Yang shouted mockingly.

"Probably true," Jaune groaned, completely missing the connotation of what he'd said until Rukia and Yang started snickering. The Keyblade Wielder groaned and turned red. "Screw it, I'm just going to charge." The Keyblade Wielder vaulted over the top of the sand dune and began to slide down the other side, sand kicking up behind him. He held the Keyblade out behind him and struggled to maintain his balance, until his foot hit a small stone and got stuck. Jaune yelped and flipped through the air, landing face first and beginning a long tumble of heels over head and vice versa as he rolled down the side of the dune and eventually landed in a heap at the bottom.

Predictably, Yang and Rukia did the same as him although they managed to slide down without a single problem and came to a full stop with minimal effort. "I hate you more now," Jaune grumbled through the sand filling his mouth.

Yang's retort was cut off as it was born, replaced by the dozen Heartless that had burst into existence around them. Ronin armor clinked and their swords readied to attack. Darkness exploded into existence along the edge of the blades and the Heartless shrieked in their hollow, broken voices. Yang grinned and slammed Ember Celica into weapon mode. "Ready to take that hate out on something that deserves it?" she asked, casting a glance towards Jaune, still half-buried in sand.

The Keyblade wielder scrabbled to his feet, sand flying off of him as he readied to fight as well. "One of these days, I'll blow right by the ambush they have prepared. Just 'zoom!' Already at the boss room," Jaune grumbled angrily.

"Then let's get moving," Rukia said sternly, drawing her Zanpakuto in a single, smooth draw. She jumped forward, blade cleaving one of the Heartless cleanly in two before it could even react.

It was at that point that the battle broke out fully. The Ronin charged forward, different elemental energies channeling along their blades, and began to match blades with the three warriors.

Yang easily dodged the trio of blows that came her way, showing just how much stronger during their travels. The blades did not even come close to hitting her as she sidestepped them without any effort. She brought her knee up to the handle of the sword one of her opponents held in its hand, slamming it into the pommel and sending it soaring out of the creature's grasp. The fist on her other side snapped up and snapped its neck with a single blow. It faded away into Darkness immediately, destroyed by a her unyielding might. She turned her attention on the other two Ronin, who were returning to combat stances. Yang brought her fists up and cracked her knuckles. "Ready for more?" she asked. The Ronin glanced at each other, then charged her again, blissfully unaware of their quickly approaching deaths.

Jaune was faring... less well. He felt sluggish and slow, and... well, he hadn't wanted to let Yang see it, but he'd been feeling sick during their trip on the Gummi Ship. It was weird, but it almost felt like all the progress he had made had just... vanished. He had reached a point where, before, he could have annihilated every one of these Heartless alone. Now, though, he couldn't even manage to get a blow of his own out. "SOL!" Jaune screamed as a blade arced towards his head. He threw his left arm up to block the attack and let a blade coated in Dark flames glance off of the buckler's surface. He jumped back, missing any opportunity to counterattack, in order to avoid a vertical slash from another of his three opponents. The third charged in from behind and slashed at his back, crashing into his armor and causing him to stumble forward from the force.

Jaune turned and regained his footing just in time to bring the Keyblade up to block another sword attack, the blades glancing off one another in a shower of sparks created from Light and Darkness. He shoved as hard as he could and the Heartless staggered back a step, giving him just enough time to jump forward and land a powerful smack to the creature's masked face. The mask cracked and spun, blinding the Heartless for a moment. Jaune, over eager perhaps, moved to slash again only for another Heartless to crash into his side as it jumped away from a pillar of ice that exploded from the ground, Rukia's now silvery-white Zanpakuto glinting with energy. One of the other Heartless was in the middle of the ice, frozen to death by the magic she had used that, eventually, turned it into a glowing Heart drifting ever so slowly upward through the pillar.

Jaune cursed to himself and stumbled up to his feet, trying to get into a ready position to fight off the Heartless, all four of them, surrounding him. "I, uh... I warn you, I am... Oh, no."

The four Heartless froze when a single slash of silver carved through them almost simultaneously, leaving a very confused Jaune staring at the black smoke and crystalline Hearts floating towards the sky. He blinked and followed the Hearts for a moment before looking down at his apparent savior.

"I am glad my weakness has not made me like you," Morrigan said, swinging her sword of Nothingness out to the side as it disappeared in a flash of black and white. She brought her arms over her chest and glared at the blonde Keyblade Wielder, red eyes unamused by his blundering. "Arc." Her head drifted towards the stunned blonde brawler a few feet away. "... _Weakness._ "

"Mom...ish," Yang responded coolly, though her eyes were a flaming red. She crossed her arms over her own chest and Jaune did a double take – she and Morrigan looked exactly the same. "What, no hug for your darling daughter?"

"Oh, I do see a resemblance," Rukia said as she sheathed her Zanpakuto. She bowed to the Nobody. "Thank you for saving our friend. He is..." she stood up and cast a glare at Jaune. "Out of sorts."

Morrigan's gaze turned towards Rukia. "That boy is _always_ out of sorts."

"I am right here, you know," Jaune grumbled, earning no response from any of the women around him.

Morrigan looked Rukia up and down for a moment, slowly examing her garb. "You're dressed the same as that Ichigo boy," she said simply. She looked over at the castle, emotionless face not changing. "You have many enemies here."

"You've seen Ichigo?!" Rukia asked, eyes widening.

"What you thinking of joining them?" Yang asked angrily. She jabbed her finger into the Nobody's arm, causing the red head to turn a glare similar to annoyance at the girl. "You'd get plenty of chances to kill me with them, wouldn't you?"

"Wait, you're going to try and kill your daughter?" Rukia snapped as she was clued in to everything going on. She quickly grabbed hold of her Zanpakuto hilt, only for Morrigan's blade to appear at her throat.

"I have no intention of attacking my weakness here," she plainly stated, red eyes boring into purple. "Not when to do so would create further threat to me." She glanced over at Jaune and Yang. "Have you tried to access your ship recently?"

Jaune frowned. "Uh, n – Wait, is this like when the Soul Reapers locked down the Soul Society?"

"The owner of this place, this 'Aizen,' he set up a barrier," Raven's Nobody explained. She lifted her right hand and moved it past her left. "He wants people to enter this world, but not to leave. I believe he was trying to lure in Ichigo and others of his kind."

"He wants the Soul Reapers here? But... why?" Rukia wondered. She shook her head. "We're the only ones who could possibly stop him. Why risk having his plans interrupted?"

"Because you are not a threat to his plans," the Nobody explained as she crossed her arms. "If I am going to judge your people's power and skill by you and Ichigo, at least."

"What happened?" Rukia asked, an edge of worry running through her voice. "Where is he?"

"He and his friends were defeated in a battle yesterday. From my scouting, the three of them are still under the care of the person that defeated them."

"And where were you that entire time?" Rukia asked angrily.

"I made my escape when it was clear they could not defeat this 'Espada 7' character," Morrigan explained. She shrugged off Rukia's angry glare. "Simply put, I decided it was better to escape and wait for an opportunity to leave this place or rescue them if need be. With you here one of those options is available and will lead to the other."

"Real selfless," Yang remarked with an eye roll. "I can tell you've got quite a big Heart."

Jaune couldn't help but laugh at that one, earning a confused glare from Rukia and a grin from his partner. "You have the wit of your father," Morrigan muttered.. She gestured at the door. "Now, would you like to save your 'friends,' my weakness?"

"I love my mom's nicknames," Yang said with a sidelong glance at Jaune.

He shrugged back. "Better than grandma nicknames," he said jokingly.

"True, Grandma does call me and Ruby the weirdest things."

"You two are so weird," Rukia muttered in disbelief.

"And soon to be dead."

The group whirled on the source of the voice, their weapons either exploding into being or being drawn from where they rested to point at the enemy. It was a tall, muscular man with dark skin. White spines came out from the top of his head in a small mohawk that seemed to match the substance of the teeth-like necklace he wore. Purple tatoos rested above serious, golden eyes. He wore a tight, form fiiting shirt of white with black accents that reminded Jaune of the shirt that Ren wore when they first met. He wore white hakama with pitch black socks and sandals beneath. In his right hand was a katana – a Zanpakuto. Dangling from his left, the unconscious forms of Ichigo, Ishida, and Chad. His eyes came to rest on Jaune. "Except for you."

"Let me guess. Aizen owes me?" Jaune grumbled. He shook his head. "Thankfully, that was somebody else."

"Owes you? No! Lord Aizen wants to find a way to take that key away from you!"

Jaune sighed. "Of course he does." Jaune readied the Keyblade in front of him. "Well, that's not exactly how this works, okay?"

"Lord Aizen will find a way," the man remarked simply. "His power and knowledge are not bounded by the limits of children."

"But you're about to be killed by these children!" Rukia snapped. "Dance, Sode no Shurayuki!" A circle of white appeared below the Arrancar, its perimeter stopping just short of the Soul Reaper's unconscious friends, then shot up to surround the Seventh Espada. Rukia narrowed her eyes angrily at the ice pillar before it shattered. "And now you're dead."

Morrigan turned around, blade drawn defensively, and jumped behind Rukia. There was a loud clang as metal met metal and the Nobody tensed her legs to take the brunt of the attack, wind blasting past her from the pressure but otherwise saving the young Reaper from the Arrancar's blade carving through her body. "You thought it would be that easy?" the Nobody growled to the surprised trio with her. "Don't be stupid! He's stronger than any one of us on our own!"

"Sounded like it hurt you to say that!" Yang shouted as she leaped over her mother's Nobody and slammed a fist down on the Espada's head, sending him skidding backwards through the sand. Yang landed where he had been standing a moment earlier, and raised her fists into a defensive position again.

The Arrancar jumped forward, slashing at Yang again, only for his head to be slammed to the side by the familiar sight of Jaune's gold and silver Keyblade. He hit the ground and tumbled to the side, rolling to a stop on his feet as he regained his footing. "Do not -" he was cut off bt a blast of freezing air, the cold surrounding his joints and freezing him in place momentarily, letting Morrigan sprint forward and stab at him with her telescoping blade. The attack pierced his left shoulder, sending blood flying out of his back before the blade disappeared and reappeared in Morrigan's hand to try and decapitate him.

"Enough!" An explosive force flew out from the man's body, sending sand and the warriors fighting within it sliding away from the Hollow and giving him space. He groaned and placed his free hand over the stab wound that had gone cleanly through his left shoulder. His eyes glanced over each of his opponents in turn, at which point he growled, "You'll pay for that." He spread his legs and put his sword out in front of his body, letting go of it. Instead of falling, however, the sword remained where it was.

"Attack, now!" Morrigan snapped, having recovered from the blowback first.

The other three nodded and leaped after her, weapons raised. The man had barely begun to turn his his head at a horrifying angle before Morrigan's katana sliced through the arm she had damaged before. The man screamed and his head snapped back into place, sword falling to the ground. "Wha -?" he screamed as his blood splattered across the sand. "But every Soul Reaper allows their opponent to unleash their full power!"

"Well, we aren't Soul Reapers," Yang said with a smirk as she launched herself forward with twin Firagas, letting her Sparkga cloaked feet collide with the Arrancar's chest, shredding his shirt and leaving a blackened burn across his body, bleeding wounds in the shape of her bootprints square at their center with a hole between them.

Jaune laughed. "What kind of idiot lets his opponent get to full power?" he inquired as he, _finally_ , was able to coat his blade with light and slice through the Espada's other arm. He slid to a stop and turned around, raising the Keyblade again. "I mean, until you stopped moving and gave us an easy target I was worried we might have some trouble with you!"

"I _am_ a Soul Reaper, but I am far more concerned with my friends over there!" Rukia snapped from where she stood, her Zanpakuto pure white and held in front of her, ribbon dancing in the wind. "Now, _Dance! Sode No Shurayuki!_ " A white circle inscribed itself across the ground around the Arrancar, who was having trouble moving from the pain of his lost arms and ruined body. "First Dance, White Moon!" And then the pillar exploded upward, capturing the Hollow within. After a moment, it shattered, and so did the monster within it.

Yang scoffed. "Moron," she mocked the Espada. She looked over at Ichigo and the others, then sprinted over with Morrigan, Rukia, and Jaune not far behind.

The Soul Reaper sheathed her Zanpakuto and passed the brawler after a moment and slid to a stop beside Ichigo, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him violently. "Wake up! You're disgracing the Soul Reaper name!" Rukia snapped as she continued to assault her friend. She raised her right fist and slammed it down on top of Ichigo's skull, causing both Yang and Jaune to flinch. "Idiot!"

"Should we stop her?" Jaune wondered in a whisper towards his partner.

Yang snorted. "Hell no! I'm not taking those punches for him," she replied with a shake of her head. She turned towards Jaune and grinned. "Though, this does give me ideas if you ever fall unconscious!"

"You _could_ just use a Cure on me," Jaune suggested dryly. He jerked his head towards Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu. "Or you could do it on them."

"Why don't you do it?" Morrigan inquired suddenly from his right. Jaune nearly leaped intot he air, surprised at how close her voice had suddenly become.

He took a deep breath to calm himself and met her cold, red eyes. "I... can't. Nothing's working right," he muttered, self-loathing leaking through his voice. He shook his head and held the Keyblade up in front of him. "That guy who saved us from you. He's a different me, but -"

"I don't care, why" Morrigan replied, crossing her arms and looking away from him. "And neither should you. Eliminate your weakness. Carve it away. Only then will you be whole."

"That would be almost inspiring if you didn't think I was your weakness, _Mom_ ," Yang mumbled pointedly. She groaned and threw up her hands. "Okay, okay. Time to Ichi _ **go**_ and heal the Strawberry."

"Ugh, that was so bad..." Ichigo grumbled from the sand. The group turned in surprise as he pushed himself up and out of Rukia's hands. He rubbed the back of his head and looked over at Yang. "So bad that it woke me up."

"See, laughter is the best medicine," Yang told Jaune, deciding to take this news how she wanted.

"I don't think that's what he meant," Rukia pointed out, though she was simply ignored by Yang.

"Maybe another one will wake up Chad and Uryu!" Yang shouted.

"NO!" the entire group, Morrigan included, shouted desperately. Jaune sighed. "Just... no more? Use a Cura, please?"

Yang turned an eye towards him. "Party pooper," she grumbled, though she still walked towards Chad and Ishida, raising her hand above her. Golden flowers and green light exploded into being above her palm, swirling around her and enveloping all three warriors. Ichigo felt all of his aches leave him and his wounds sew themselves shut, while Chad and Ishida slowly began to awaken.

"Wh-where are we?" Ishida wondered through a groan. Chad did not say anything,s imply sitting up and groggily looking around.

Rukia helped Ichigo to his feet before moving on to help the others. "Outside of Las Noches."

"What happened to that large Arrancar that took us out?" Ichida wondered. "One minute we were heading to save Orihime, and the next – unconscious."

"That guy? Eh, he was easy," Yang said, crossing her arms and grinning cockily at the Quincy archer.

Jaune laughed nervously. "She doesn't speak for all of us," he said quietly. He shook his head. "Though he did stand around for a minute hoping to power up, which gave us the perfect moment to get the jump on him."

"You just attacked him while he powered up?" Ichigo asked, dumbfounded.

"Well, it was that or get captured like you idiots," Rukia snapped, slamming her fist down on the taller boy's head once again.

"Ow! What the hell, Midget!?" Ichigo snapped, getting close to the shorter Soul Reaper. "First you say you have to follow orders and not help me, and now you're here beating me? Make up your mind!"

"Make up my mind? I'm here, aren't I!?" she retorted, drawing her sleeve up to prepare for another punch.

Yang and Jaune traded a look. "Well, it's nice to see you two haven't changed," Jaune said in an effort to break the tension.

Almost like they hadn't even been arguing in the first place, Rukia and Ichigo turned towards him. "You have, Jaune. You seem... I don't know. Tired?" Ichigo said. He walked up and examined the Keyblade Wielder closely. "What happened? When you left, you seemed pretty excited."

Jaune laughed nervously. "A lot happened," he said, voice low. "I, uh, you remember that creepy guy who looked like you?"

Ichigo's face quickly became annoyed and pained. "Oh, I've talked with him... way too much." He sighed. "Why?"

"Well, I have one of those. Except... he's outside of my Heart. And, maybe, you know, trying to annihilate the universe."

Ichigo stared blankly at the Keyblade Wielder for a while. Then he broke out into laughter. "Wow, I guess it's business as usual for us, huh!?" he asked through guffaws. "First Aizen now, what, Dark Jaune? DJ?"

"Uh, we call him OJ," Yang supplied.

Ishida frowned. "Like... the juice?"

"Huh. I guess so," Yang said, quietly surprised she hadn't noticed that. She quickly grinned. "I'm going to juice that joke for all it's worth!"

Jaune's chin hit his chest. "Dammit, Yang."

"I do not mean to intrude, but are we going to come up with a plan?" Morrigan cut in, ending the conversation of, in her mind, children. "The only way to escape this place is to defeat Aizen here and now or find whatever he has used to lock this world away from the others, neither of which we can do without a plan."

"And we need to find Orihime," Chad tacked on somberly from where he was sitting in the sand.

"... Of course," Morrigan said.

"First, is no one going to point out that she ditched us?" Ichigo finally asked with a growl aimed at Morrigan. "Left us for dead after we got knocked out!"

"And it is good I did, else these three would have been captured as well," Morrigan said, a cold and angry edge to her voice. 'And you would be dead, most likely."

"I -"

"She's right," Rukia admitted begrudgingly. She crossed her arms and turned to glare at Morrigan. "She found us and helped us defeat that Espada. Without her, we wouldn't have made it. At least, not all of us."

"A tactical retreat was a useful idea," Ishida agreed simply. He resettled his glasses with one hand. "And it is clear she is not on Aizen's side, so working with us is in her best interest."

"No one else is coming," Chad pointed out.

Jaune looked around, realizing everyone had turned their heads towards him one at a time. He sighed and shook his head. "So what do we know about this place?"

"It's full of nine more guys, most of them stronger than the guy who snuck up and knocked us out," Ichigo grumbled, casting another glare at Morrigan for abandoning them. "A ton of Heartless, Aizen, and his Soul Reaper underlings."

"It's a maze that we have no knowledge about how to traverse," Ishida added tiredly.

"And it's the size of a city," Yang said, looking up at the walls. She looked back down. "Oh, and we can't escape if we run into too much trouble."

Jaune groaned and let his chin hit his chest. "Great." He shut his eyes. _Plan. A plan. Need a plan... Oooooooh, that might work_. He lifted his eyes and looked around the castle, eventually letting them settle on what looked like a window shut tight on the wall some dozens of feet above. If there was one there... "Okay. I have a plan. Maybe."

"Lay it on us, Good Boy," Yang said, leaning on him with one elbow. "I'm all ears."

"How do you feel about... splitting up?"

Yang's grin disappeared. "Jaune..."

"Me and half the group through one of the upper windows on the outer walls. The other half of the group goes through the front door. We both head for the central tower and then head up it together. It makes sense that would be where Aizen, Orihime, and the lock will be. Get me there with my Keyblade and I can unlock it, and we can go and get more reinforcements if necessary. And if we're in a tight spot, then we could get out. After we find the lock we'll decide what to do."

"And the teams?" Yang asked, already worried, her sentiments echoed on every face. Even Morrigan's.

"Me, Ichigo, Rukia. You, Morrigan, Ishida, and Chad on the other. Both teams need someone who can go all out at the front – you and Ichigo. A skilled secondary – Morrigan and Rukia. Ishida and Chad won't be surprised a second time, and they've been through the front door a little already, so they'll be able to guide you for a little while. That leaves me with Ichigo and Rukia, because Ichigo can at least give me an idea of where we're at compared to where you guys enter."

"I hate it,," Ichigo grumbled. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Why split up?"

"The danger will be heaviest at the center tower, which means we can catch the enemy in a pincer and attack them from behind. If we're lucky, that surprise attack might give us the edge we need," Jaune explained. He gestured up at the window closest, though it was a good twenty yards from the front gate. "We'll enter through there so we're at least a little close to each other the whole way through."

"If need be, we can blow a hole through the ceiling to meet you guys and we can regroup. It might not be the worst idea anyone has come up with," Morrigan admitted, though it looked like it pained her to do so. "Though... must I be paired with my weakness?"

"I'm not happy about it either!" Yang snapped coldly. "Trade me out for -"

"No," Jaune growled, hoping Yang would get the message. Sora had said Nobodies could slowly regrow their Hearts, especially after their Heartless was destroyed. He hopd that pairing the mother and daughter together might somehow... jump start that process. He thought the woman already had some emotions. Mostly just 'angry' and 'annoyed,' but it was a start. Plus, the Nobody had an obsession with being the one to kill Yang, to the point she would protect the blonde if anyone else tried to kill her. Maybe by protecting her through this castle, the positive emotions might start cropping up. "This is the way it's going to be."

"... Fine," the women with identical faces growled, turning and pouting away from one another.

 _ **R W B Y**_

"Lord Aizen," a monotone voice intoned as the large door slid open, bringing bright light into the dark room. Heartless that had congregated here hissed and jumped back into the shadows, desperately trying to avoid the burning energy that was their opposite. A thin man with pale skin walked into the room, deep black hair cascading down his face. Thin green lines traced down his cheeks like tear stains from the same colored eyes. A bony protrusion like a samurai's helmet curved out from the left side of his head. He had a tight, long jacket on with a single thin line that traced down to its end, shortly above the large black cloth belt at the top of his white Hakama. A pale green Zanpakuto sat in its similarly colored sheathe at his left side as he entered and bowed to his master. "It would appear that the intruders were able to kill Zommari Rureaux and have entered Las Noches proper."

"Hmm... how interesting, Ulquiorra." The light of the opening doors ran through the room, resting on a man sitting on a large, white throne. The Heartless seemed both simultaneously intrigued and scared of this man, writhing and rushing towards him, only to rush back and leave a perimeter of open space around him. "Ichigo and Rukia, I expect."

"Yes, Lord Aizen," Ulquiorra continued. "Though, it would appear that they have other warriors with them – a two women and a young man."

"Do not keep me waiting in suspense, Espada 4," the lord of Las Noches commanded with a smirk rushing across his features. "Nor our guest..." He gestured with one hand at the young woman standing nearby, her palms pointed at a small circular object on a pedastal. "I am sure Miss Inoue would love to hear about Ichigo and his friends."

The girl stopped what she was doing for a moment and the light in the room dimmed, though she quickly continued and everything became normal again. "Yes, Lord Aizen. One of the women has bright red hair and a Zanpakuto that has the same abilities as Ichimaru's, though she does not wear the robes of a Soul Reaper. The other is blonde and seems to lack tact in favor of brute strength."

"And the boy?"

"He is blonde as well, though he wields the Key."

Aizen's smirk disappeared. "Which key?"

"Silver and gold."

Aizen's smirk returned slowly. "Good. That Key seems to hold great promise. Promise I wish to make my own," the Soul Reaper traitor said. He stood up from his throne and held his hand out in front of him. "A Keyblade could unlock the full power of the Hogyoku now, and the doors of the Soul King's home would be like paper before a fire."

"Should I send some of the Espada after them, Lord Aizen?"

The villain scoffed. "No, I have a feeling they will have to deal with other invaders quite soon. You should find them at the center tower, at the Lock. Wait for Ichigo there," he sat down and turned towards Orihime. "Take her with you. After all, I have little use for her now that she is finished and stalling with her task."

"What, but I -" The young woman, her burnt orange hair moving wildly as she turned. She took a half step back. "I haven't been -"

"Please try not to insult my intelligence, little girl. It isn't nice," he said with a sickeningly false and sweet smile. Aizen turned back to Ulquiorra. "Bring the boy with the Keyblade to me when you're done. Alive. I would love to see what lets him control a weapon of such power."

"And the others?"

"I have no use for any of them. Dead or alive, none of them are strong enough or intelligent enough to warrant any worry on my part," Aizen explained with a shrug. "Do as you see fit, Ulquiorra. I give you my blessing."

"Thank you, Lord Aizen," the Arrancar said with another bow, a hint of joy coming through his monotone voice.

 _ **R W B Y**_

A figure in a long black coat looked over the large castle, silently fuming as he watched Jaune and his friends invade. "Trying to keep me from my prize, Jaune?" OJ growled. He shook his head, though his eyes remained stuck on his counterpart. "Gaining fools for allies and running from Pyrrha like this? How dare you..." He stood up straight and turned, running headfirst into a large man.

"What the hell are you doin' here!?" the large man snarled, his fist glowing black as he held it back and ready to fly into OJ's face. There was a large, artistic '10' on his massive left shoulder and a hole the size of OJ's head in the center of his chest. He was huge, with crests coming out from the top of his bronze head and another bone jaw existing on the outside of his jawline. There was a sword tucked into the black cloth belt holding up his white hakama.

OJ just rolled his eyes and walked past him.

"Wha –? Hey, no one ignores Yammy!" the man shouted, rage filling every word as he turned and launched the massive ball of energy from his fist and at the back of OJ's head. It exploded on contact, sending dirt and energy soaring throughout the air. Yammy glared at the smoke cloud for a moment before laughing cruelly. "Looks like I didn't even need to ask what you were -"

His words were cut off as a golden spear flew out of the cloud, slamming through his chest, the tip exposed through the Hollow hole in his chest, before exploding in a burst of Darkness that burned at his flesh. "Agh! AGH!" the monster of an Arrancar screamed, blindly swatting at the energy that was spreading throughout his body. "Get it off! Get it -"

He was cut off when the spear disappeared, and the figure he had attacked appeared out of the smoke, a golden sword in one hand and a red and silver shield in the other. "Then I suppose you have my full attention, Yammy." Then he swung at the giant's throat, black energy coating the blade. "For the next two seconds."

Yammy swatted the blow away, thankful that the Darkness had stopped spreading throughout his body, though where it had spread was still poisoned and injured. "That's it, you insect, I'm gonna kill you now!"

"I doubt that," OJ growled as he threw the shield past Yammy's arm. The sword in OJ's hand vanished, and the shield did as well, replaced in a burst of black with a swirling Keyblade flying right at the Arrancar's neck. "Goodbye." Then a Dark Firaga exploded from the Keyblade, leaving OJ all alone on the roof.

The warrior summoned the Keyblade back to his hand and turned to leave again. "Hopefully I don't run into any more of these distractions," he growled to himself. He shook his head and swirled the Keyblade, breaking through the lock and summoning a portal of Darkness. "This one is too well guarded for now, especially with Jaune here. I better look for one of the other items I need and come back here when I can. I think the one in that animal world might be a good start."


	19. Tear in my Heart

**AN:**

 **Hey everyone! Glad to be back after a month and a week! Sorry it took a while, but a lot has happened. My computer is finally reaching that age where everything stops working. Battery won't charge, boot up takes six years, it'll scream at me and orange screen if it's on too long. On top of that, I got to go to SDCC with my family, so I couldn't write that week! On top of that, I just got the All-in-One bundle for Kingdom Hearts and I _had_ to play through all the games again, right!? I've been writing whenever I could, though.**

 **Now for some responses:**

 **To Gamelover41592: I'm glad you liked the pun! KH3 might have an effect on this fic, I'll have to see once I play it. It wouldn't surprise me if it did, though.**

 **To Remnant7: Yammy's... I don't know. He's stupidly strong in his big fight, but I never thought he was a centrally cool character. Still, it gives a good gauge of OJ's strength in comparison to Jaune's right then. _Bleach_ is a pretty fun show. Lot's of filler. As for _My Hero Academia_ , it is my favorite TV show right now, bar none. The characters are bananas awesome, to the point where it's actually also my first manga!**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: I hope that my group loves my DnD. It's a semi-custom ruleset that we've been testing for a superhero type one. It's a lot of work to make all new enemies, but I love it. I hope that this chapter lives up to the promise last chapter made.**

 **To DragoonSensei: Thank you. I want it to be a clever storyline almost as much as just a fun one.**

 **To AquaTimez: Wow. Well, I really appreciate that you'd leave a review so much larger than what you're accustomed to and that you have such a high view of the story, from the first fic until here, even if you've never been a big RWBY fan. I've tried really hard to make the characterization consistent throughout every chapter, and I've often worried that the jumps that I've made throughout their character arcs have been too large too fast. To hear that you think that everyone, even the secondary characters, are written great and that their development seems pretty organic, is a real weight off of my mind. I was also worried at first about how I'd combined the worlds, like it would be too much of a big change, but I really like it too and was happy it became bigger than just 'saving this one world' without having to have Sora in his usual element. I also really am happy you like that Jaune isn't always winning. One of my favorite little things in Kingdom Hearts was that you could beat or lose to both Leon and Cloud and it was okay either way. Sora wasn't a beast then, and Jaune isn't here either. I changed the story and cast of each world out of necessity, like you guessed. This already seems like too much, and I think I'm not going to include the rest of Ichigo's group next time. Too many ingredients, I think. I'm glad that you like Jaune and Yang's relationship. It's honestly my favorite part of this story, too, because it's really fun to write, and it grows on its own as I write it. Being consistent is difficult. There've been times I've deleted like 4500 words because they didn't really fit right, and it needs to. I hope it stays consistent. That's the hardest part. As for the spoilers, sorry. I'll give out obvious things – I mean, like Sora getting a Keyblade back when it was that or die. But Yang and Jaune? That's a wait and see spoiler. Anyways, I'm glad you like the story. Here's to another... 60 chapters of loving it!**

 _ **Chapter 19: Tear in My Heart**_

Jaune grunted as his back hit the wall, sending a jolt of surprise more than pain running down his back. The two Ronin pushing against his Keyblade chattered excitedly and raised their swords to attack again, barely giving Jaune enough time to dive out of the way and swing a glancing blow that turned one of the Heartless' legs into mist. The monster shrieked and toppled slowly over, though the other jumped over it and rushed Jaune again. He quickly raised the Keyblade to block the attack and spun to use its momentum to send it stumbling past him. He kicked it in the back and it lammed face first into the ground, giving him the time to spear it through the chest with his Keyblade. He turned to see the one he had maimed dragging itself slowly towards him, sword waving wildly. He set his jaw and brought the Keyblade down again, releasing another Heart from Darkness. He turned and surveyed the hallway, where Ichigo and Rukia were busy fighting against their own squadrons of Heartless. "This is getting insane," Jaune mumbled to himself. He took a deep breath, then readied the Keyblade again and sprinted towards the fray.

His Keyblade collided with a Ronin that jumped at Rukia's back, the Light of the blade exterminating it quickly. He turned and slashed at a Soldier Heartless next, though it erratically jumped out of the way and instead allowed a Shaman – a monkey like Heartless with a face composed of a bony mask – to shoot blue flames at the Keyblade wielder. Jaune jumped between the pillars of energy and swung the Keyblade like a bat, sending a Shadow careening into the Shaman and knocking it off balance until he dashed forward and speared both Heartless through using the Keyblade. "Ninety seven!" Ichigo shouted from behind.

"Oh, no, I'm not doing this. Not again!" Jaune snapped as he turned his gaze for a moment towards the Soul Reaper and saw a Getsuga Tenshou annihilate a column of Heartless.

"One hundred and three!" Rukia retorted as a blast of ice shot from her blade and froze a similarly sized group of Heartless solid.

"Guys, come on!" Jaune whined, knowing that taking these things out with just sword skills wasn't going to do much in the way of letting him catch up. "Just focus on fighting!"

"121!"

"148!"

"164!"

"180!"

"Guys!" Jaune hissed angrily. They were just shouting numbers for fun at this point! He raised the Keyblade and managed to block a Fire coated slash from a Ronin from his right side. Jaune pushed back against the attack, then steadied himself and kept the Keyblade up in a defensive posture. He glared around at the Heartless approaching him, their chattering and shivering forms forming a ring of Darkness as they pressed towards Jaune. Jaune kept an eye on each of them as best he could, making sure to keep all of them further than his Keyblade's length away. Jaune was able to keep his voice from cracking this time as he asked, "So... who wants some?"

The Heartless jumped forward, nearly all at once, and Jaune sighed. "Why can't it ever be easy?" he mumbled before beginning to block and counterattack the incoming blows, Keyblade flashing as it collided with the various attacks that came his way. He slid with his weapon beneath a pair of Ronin's swords that rushed down at him, then clumsily managed to sidestep a Soldier throwing itself at him in a wild tackle. The claws danced along the Keyblade wielder's armor, leaving sparks to dance from the point of contact. Jaune yelped and brought his Keyblade around, smacking the creature in the back of the head, shattering its metallic armor and turning it into a cloud of inky black. He regained his footing and shot a blizzard spell at an incoming, on fire bell of a Heartless, freezing it solid and causing it to slam onto the ground and shatter.

"So, what exactly have you guys been up to since Soul Society?" Ichigo shouted over the din of the battle. He swung his blade around his body, carving through the Heartless that had come too close.

"What?" Jaune asked, more in an effort to stall and come up with a semi-believable lie or half truth. A planet of animal people wasn't exactly what he wanted to say. He blocked a Ronin's blade and shoved it away. "Well, I met my evil twin from another timeline who wants to end the universe."

"Are you serious?" Rukia inquired with a raised eyebrow. She twirled like a dancer around a Heartless' attack, then quickly slashed through its neck with a precise attack that caused it to fall apart. She tossed a glance towards the Keyblade wielder. "Oh, you _are_?"

"And I thought I had evil twin problems," Ichigo scoffed before cutting a Ronin's sword in half and kicking it hard, sending the Heartless flying backwards.

"Really not a competition I'd like to win, you know," Jaune explained as he cut down the last of the Heartless attacking him – a Shaman. He stood up straight and lowered the Keyblade so its tip dangled just above the ground. He turned and walked towards Rukia and Ichigo as they reconvened after defeating their final enemies. Jaune looked around at them. "It's been a lot."

"And it explains the haircut and new clothes," Ichigo pointed out. He moved his cleaver of a sword onto his back again. "I guess you needed a change of pace."

"It's bad, but I think Yang might have it a little bit worse," Rukia explained. She shrugged. "I sometimes imagine my sister again, but if she wanted to kill me when I did? I can't imagine what she's going through."

"Yeah, but that's been going on for... let's see, for us it's been... maybe a total of six months. Maybe a year if you measure by... just, um... time. You know?" Jaune began, stumbling along as he realized he was accidentally revealing the existence of other worlds. "I mean -"

"We get it. Traveling the different worlds – Hueco Mundo, Earth, Soul Society. Time doesn't flow exactly the same," Ichigo said with a shrug. "When we left to save Rukia, we jumped _back_ in time, if you can believe it."

Jaune raised an eyebrow and decided to take the kindness the World had given him. "Y-yeah. Like that."

"You must have been doing a lot of traveling to lose half a year," Rukia said with a frown. "So much that – wait a second, did Ichigo give you what Kisuke told him to give you?" She whirled on the orange haired warrior. "Ichigo, did you?!"

"Oh, uh – I was just about to do it!" Ichigo snapped at the shorter warrior, reaching behind his back and grabbing something. "There's no need to boss me around, Midget!"

Rukia scoffed and retorted with, "I won't boss you around once you finally just do what I want _before_ I tell you!"

"And -"

Jaune raised his hand to cut them off and sighed, "Guys, can you stop this whole old married couple routine long enough to tell me what you're talking about?"

Ichigo and Rukia turned towards him. "Oh, uh... Sure," Ichigo said with a shrug. He tossed what he was holding over to the Keyblade wielder. Jaune tried to catch it with one hand, then yelped as it bounced out and he was barely able to latch on with both hands together.

"Er... I meant to do that?" Jaune supplied upon catching sight of Ichigo and Rukia's dry glares.

Rukia scoffed, "Course you did."

Jaune glared at her for a moment before slowly standing up straight and looking at what was in his hands. His eyes widened as he brought it up to look at it closer. " _The Key of Destiny_?" Jaune whispered upon examining the book. That was unbelievable, a book from his world!? A book that – that shouldn't even exist on this world! He tore open the latch and looked at the inside cover of the book. There was a message on the inside of the book's front cover, signed by a 'Kisuke Uruhara' that said, _Hey, Alien kid. You like_ _ **really**_ _old books?_

Jaune slammed the book shut. "What's it say?" Ichigo asked upon seeing Jaune's face.

"Nothing, just – I – never mind!" he shouted before stuffing it in his pouch. He shook his head, completely unsure of what to do with what he'd just seen. This Kisuke guy was _way_ too smart for Jaune's own good. What was Sora going to do with this information?

Ah, who was Jaune kidding? There was some sort of absurd thing about to happen. Races, beach days, a tournament? There were so many possibilities here, and Jaune knew none of them would leave him happy. Or keep that rule that worlds shouldn't know about each other unbroken.

"Can we just move on?"Jaune asked, gesturing down the hallway.

"I'm reading that book now," Rukia said simply. "Maybe not _now_ now, but eventually."

"Why am I not surprised you'd steal a private message from Jaune?" Ichigo asked, exasperated. He smirked when Rukia glared angrily at him.

Jaune shook his head. They were worse than... Never mind. No one was worse than Weiss' sister and Ruby's uncle. He continued walking down the hallway once again, not even bothering to look back as Rukia and Ichigo noticed he was gone and plodded after him, quietly arguing as they went. Jaune stopped at the end of the hallway and looked up.

Rukia and Ichigo stopped arguing to follow his gaze, their eyes stopping on a large chain and lock that crossed over the doorway, binding it shut. "I got this," Ichigo said with a growl, pulling Zangetsu from his back and raising it in one hand. "Getsuga Tenshou!" The Substitute Soul Reaper swung his sword forward, the edge burning a bright blue-white before the energy was tossed off of the weapon. It soared towards the door, enough energy to shatter every wall in the place, then collided with the lock and exploded, sending a cloud of dust soaring all around to obscure the door.

Ichigo shouldered his Zanpakuto and grinned. "That should do it," he smirked, turning around to smirk at at his squad.

Only to meet the dry glares of Jaune and Rukia. "W-what?" Ichigo wondered as he met their eyes.

Rukia simply let her finger do the talking, rising to point at the door. Ichigo turned around and groaned. "What!? But I put enough power into that to level these walls!"

"Is that enough to overcome whatever power Aizen put into it?" Rukia asked, lowering her arm so she could cross it over the other one. "Because unless it is, I doubt you're breaking through that wall."

"I will if I put even more into -"

"Or I could just unlock it," Juane pointed out, causing both Rukia and Ichigo to turn and stare at him. He raised his Keyblade and waved it. "This isn't shaped like a key to make everyone think that it's a toy, you know?"

"It's not the key to that lock, though."

"Heh, oh, Rukia... It's the key to _every_ lock," Jaune said, a cocksure grin on his face as he tossed the Keyblade in the air, letting it spin above his hand as he prepared to catch it one handed –

Until it hit the ground and he thrust his hands after it to catch it before it bounced a second time. One very loud _clang_ was all they needed. Then he remembered he could just summon it back to his hand and it reappeared. "... Shut up," Jaune grumbled, ignoring the stifled laughter coming from the two Soul Reapers. He raised the Keyblade towards the lock, red filling his cheeks, and took a deep breath. He focused on the Keyblade and the lock, trying to connect them in his mind. Soon a swirling sphere of Light focused at the tip of the Keyblade before shooting a thin stream out of the weapon and into the lock. There was a loud noise as a pins began to move into place and the tumbler began to turn. After a moment, the energy disappeared and the stream vanished, dying out. Jaune lowered the Keyblade and glared at the lock and chain until, finally, it began to turn a bright white as parts of it began to turn into small beads of energy that floated away. There was a loud _ting_ , and the lock, chains, and door vanished completely.

Rushing out of the empty doorway was a ball of green and black energy.

"MOVE!" Jaune screamed, diving to the right side. Ichigo jumped the other way, tackling Rukia out of the way. The green energy flew just over them, sending an electric charge down each person's spine and causing the hairs on the backs of their necks to stand up. Jaune rolled to his feet and held the Keyblade at the ready, ready to defend against the next attack that came from within the room.

Standing inside of the room was a single man and a young woman. Or, at least, Jaune thought it was a man. He was a lot shorter than Jaune, with a torso that was as white as the sand outside the castle. That white ended in black fur at his biceps and his waist, and was marred by a blood like stain leaking from the large hole in his chest, a stain that matched the trails leading from his eyes. He had huge, black demon wings spreading out from his back and horns spreading upward from his black hair. There were two tufts of hair forming from his lower back to form the shape of another two wings beside his hips, a black demonic tail coming from between them. There was a glowing, ethereal blade of green energy in his right hand. No, now Jaune was sure. This wasn't a man. It was a monster.

The young woman Jaune recognized, even if he had only met her for a short while. Her bright auburn hair, timid but bright face. She may have looked out of place in that bright white Arrancar outfit but Jaune knew that was Ichigo's friend, Orihime. And right now, she was chained to a massive lock pulsing with black energy; she was on the floor, a long thin chain connecting her to the lock by her wrists. Chains spread from the lock on the wall, then out into the air where they just... vanished. It was the one keeping this world locked away from the others.

And it was being guarded by someone that had every instinct in Jaune's head screaming, "Run away."

The Keyblade wielder gulped.

The demonic figure spoke, his words slow and deliberate, though definitely not stupid. There was a horrifying intelligence behind them, instead. "Ah, Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchiki, and Jaune Arc. I was wondering when you would arrive."

Ichigo scrabbled to his feet and raised Zangetsu defensively in front of him and Rukia, who also stood up and raised her blade, whispering its name to cause it to turn into its bright white form. Ichigo growled. Seeing Orihime, though, he ignored the monster. "Orihime! Are you okay?"

"Ichigo, run!" Orihime screamed desperately. "He's going to kill -"

"All of you," the monster said as it appeared before Ichigo and slammed its fist straight through his chest. "I am Ulquiorra Cifer" He lifted Ichigo, who was clutching at his bleeding chest with his free hand, blood streaming down his chest and into Ulquiorra's fur. The Substitute Soul Reaper was gurgling, his brain not understanding there was a hole in his chest, somehow.

"ICHIGO!" Rukia and Orihime both screamed, frozen in place and eyes full of abject horror. Rukia raised her sword. "NO!" She jumped forward, filled with rage as tears streamed down her face and ice began to channel down the blade.

Ulquiorra turned his eyes towards the Soul Reaper. "Espada Four," he continued before tossing the body on his arm towards the short woman. Ichigo's body hit her and she caught him, throwing her off balance and sending the both of them to the ground in a heap, the young man unmoving with wide open, glossy eyes, and the woman shaking his shoulders desperately.

Ulquiorra's head turned towards Jaune. "And I am where your journeys will all end."

Jaune gulped again. "Oh... Dust," he whimpered. He still raised his Keyblade in front of him, knowing that there was no choice but to fight someone that he knew outclassed him. "Well... what else is new?" He rushed forward, slashing upward with the Keyblade in both hands. Ulquiorra raised his green blade down and deflected the attack, then raised his left hand, first two fingers pointed at Jaune's shoulder, and let loose a short burst of green and black energy. Jaune screamed as he was sent spinning across the hall he had just run down, rolling across the ground until he finally managed to come to a stop.

He groaned and pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his shoulder and _very_ thankful that he'd been protected by his Keyblade Armor pauldron.

His eyes widened. Keyblade armor. "Hey, ugly!" Jaune shouted as he got to his feet. He dismissed the Keyblade for a moment. "That didn't even hurt!" Then he slammed his hand onto the button and a bright light enveloped him.

He wwore a mostly white armor made from the metal of a Keyblade. Black accented the area around the joints of his fingers. His arms were covered with white armor on the outsides, a black fabric on the inside of his limbs. His bracers flared out at the elbows, forming sharp blades extending just over an inch. The armor on his shoulders fit to his shoulders in a boxy shape, and his chest armor was golden at the top of his chest and white continuing down to the end of his torso. Segmented armor covered his legs, mostly a white silver that melted into black and gold armored boots. His head was covered by a black visor, one that was nearly Heart shaped. It was connected to the segmented armor that ran up his neck, forming a Darkness-proof seal around his body. A pair of golden ears flared up from the back of his head.

He lowered his hand and the Keyblade reappeared in it, gleaming as it shined beside the armor it had created from Jaune's Heart. Jaune took a deep breath, then sprinted towards the Arrancar again. Green streaks of energy glanced off of his armor, the result of the Espada aiming for heavily armored parts of his body in an attempt to bring him in alive. Jaune soon arrived back in the room and swung at the Arrancar again, though his attack was easily side stepped. Jaune used his momentum to turn into another attack, though it was easily dodged as well. "That armor seems quite strong," Ulquiorra noted. He flew above an attack and readied his sword. "Perhaps you could survive a blow with a fraction of my strength behind it."

Jaune just grimaced behind his helmet. Of course that's what the crazy monster man would say. He threw the Keyblade up to block and jumped to the side in an attempt to dodge, though it soon became clear it was unnecessary, as a pillar of ice appeared around Ulquiorra, straight up from the ground, and he was frozen with it. "That was for Ichigo!" Rukia screamed from where she stood above the dead Soul Reaper, her eyes streaming with tears. She raised her weapon in both hands then aimed it at where Ulquiorra was in the middle of the pillar. "And this is for being a monster!" She thrust her white Zanpakuto forward, and another pillar of ice appeared from its tip, rocketing through the air to collide with the location where the Arrancar was frozen in place. Ice crashed into ice, and both pillars exploded. Bright white snow began to drift lazily down, slowly filling up the room, and a cloud of mist obscured where the ice had exploded.

"I see how you killed the other Espada, now. He was unable to fight back while trying to release his power." Ulquiorra appeared, flying silently in the center of the dissipating mist. He raised his glowing green weapon. "Which is why I came to this fight already at full power." A thin stream of green energy slammed into Rukia's shoulder, the sword suddenly in her shoulder. The momentum of the blow sent her flying back, the blade pushing her towards the wall until she was impaled on it, hanging from the wall so her feet were just barely able to touch the ground. Ulquiorra turned from her, and began to speak to Jaune. "Now, where were we?"

 _ **R W B Y**_

"Now, remind me again who the hell this guy is!?" Yang shouted as she jumped out of the path of a sword that was growing ever longer from the hand of the man attacking her. He had white hair and a white Soul Reaper outfit, a few shades brighter than his silver hair. He had very thin, almost snake-like features, with eyes slammed shut and a cocky smirk on his face.

"Gin Ichimaru. He helped Aizen betray the Soul Reapers. You may remember seeing him for a moment when you were in Soul Society?" Ishida stated as he leaped over the silver haired man and fired off a series of white hot blasts at the former Captain. The traitor Soul Reaper looked up and his sword shrank back into itself, becoming barely longer than a dagger, and he quickly used the shortened blade to deflect the attacks. The man's smirk grew slightly wider and he jumped backwards, easily avoiding a massive blow from Chad that shattered the ground.

"Hey, now, that ain't nice!" he told the quiet giant, swirling without a hair out of place. He laughed. "I thought the heroes were supposed to fight all honorable!" He turned his head and shot his blade out, the weapon extending until his collided with Morrigan's extending weapon. "And they certainly ain't supposed to steal someone's style!"

Morrigan leaped forward, shrinking her weapon and diving above Gin's blade. He brought his weapon back as much as he could, and their blades slammed into one another. "I have fought like this since before the foundations of this world were laid," Morrigan hissed at her opponent, pushing against him as hard as she could.

One of his eyebrows raised despite his shut eyes. "That's a pretty weird thing to say, ain't it? After all, you definitely ain't older than Baldy," he pointed out. He pushed backwards and tried to slash out at her throat, though she dodged despite its lengthening abilities.

"Anyone ever tell you not to ask a woman's age?" The white haired man turned to find that, despite Yang's brutish fighting style and loud mouth, was not as incapable of stealth as she appeared. "It's rude." Then her fist collided with his face, electricity dancing along the outside of her fists and channeling into the man's face just as the shotgun shells in her gauntlets exploded, launching a blast into his face. The man was thrown backwards, smoke trailing form his body, until he slammed into the wall.

After a moment, the smoke cleared, and the only thing that had changed was that his smirk had turned into a scowl. "That one _almost_ hurt," Gin said mockingly. He pushed himself up to his feet quickly and readied his Zanpakuto again. "It's also the last one any of you will get in. Sorry. Still, better me kill you than that the bat boy. He'd tear a hole in you and let you bleed out."

"Dying is dying. Courtesy is meaningless, and I will not allow myself to die either way," Morrigan retorted, slashing up at the Reaper as Ishida launched another barrage of energy arrows over her, forcing the snake-like man to deflect the beams of light that rushed towards him, then dash to the side, leaving behind nothing but a few streaks of black in his place. The Nobody thought she had still managed to land a blow, but the man reappeared without a scratch. Right behind Yang.

"O-oh! Close one," he said, smirking once again. He raised his blade to her and opened one eye. It was the iciest blue that Yang had ever seen, colder than either Weiss or her sister's had ever been. "But... not close enough!"

The fight froze. Ishida and Chad leveled their respective weapons at the former Soul Reaper, while Morrigan lowered hers. "Let her go," Ishida commanded, narrowing his eyes behind his glasses. "It shows a lack of honor and belief in your own skills to do this."

"I said that was a job for the _heroes_ , right? Honor?" Gin shut his eye and his grin widened. "You know, heroes love the Light so much. But it ain't gonna solve every problem, will it? You need a little Darkness to trick guys stronger than you. Ya know, like me!"

"Then kill her and we can continue."

Gin froze and his eyes both opened in surprise. "Uh, w-what?" he asked, eyes locked on to Morrigan.

"Kill her and we can fight again," Morrigan said, readying her blade now.

"You can't be serious!" Ishida shouted, his own weapon dipping.

Chad was similarly horrified. "She's your daughter!"

"Your daughter?" Gin asked, also visibly confused. "You would let me... kill..." His smirk turned to a scowl. "Fine." He raised his sword, and brought it down hard.

Only for Morrigan, who had jumped through a Corridor of Darkness she had quickly made, to land feet first on his hand. His sword was thrown from his grasp and clattered away across the ground, bouncing and spinning until it came to a rest beside the wall.

Gin kept his open eyes on the Nobody who now held her blade at his throat. "Well... heroes with a bit of Darkness..." Ichimaru muttered quietly. His eyes slid shut and his smirk returned. "Okay, well that's worth seeing through." He vanished, appearing beside his sword and lifting it up. He hid the blade in his outfit and shrugged. "Well then, I look forward to seeing what you do. Maybe it'll be fun when we meet again." He turned and began to walk away, leaving his opponents completely stunned. "Oh, and you better hurry. Ulquiorra probably already killed one of them."

Yang felt her heart plummet into her stomach. "Jaune," she whispered. She turned and sprinted away from her mother's Nobody, away from this fight. She had to save her partner, no matter the danger that was coming.

As Ishida and Chad followed the brawler, Morrigan fell to one knee, clutching at her chest. Her calm eyes widened and she began to breathe heavily. "Wh-what..? What is this?" she asked as her facade cracked and fear appeared in her eyes. And, more than that, relief. No, no it had to be a memory of that feeling. Her weakness running through her veins once more, destroying her as it always had.

But if these were memories of feelings? Fakes created by her Soul to pretend to have a Heart? Imaginary? If that was the case, why the hell did it all hurt so much, like her heart – the physical heart – was drowning in water. Like it was grasped in a fist strong enough to destroy diamond. She was a Nobody, trying to purge herself of weakness so she could become whole in a way not even her Somebody had managed to be. She would chase that goal her Somebody had once chased, but she would reach it. So why did she feel so relieved that her Weakness had not only survived, but that it had been her that had saved her?

She pushed herself to her feet. This was bad. She knew now what was happening. Sora had once said that Nobodies would slowly begin to grow a Heart, one that was affected by the memories held by its Soul and Body. In short, she was becoming weaker every day.

Her eyes locked on to the hair slowly catching fire in the distance. Her weakness' destruction would need to come soon, lest she lose her nerve forever. She began to slowly follow her weakness, step by step. Yes, Yang Xiao Long would need to die _very_ soon.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Yang sprinted up the stairway, hoping that her dumb partner hadn't done anything to threaten his own life while she wasn't there to bail him out. He was always running into fights without thinking, to the point that she looked downright responsible in comparison! She growled to herself and ignored the footsteps echoing her own behind her. Oh, who was she kidding? That silver haired guy basically told her that he was in immediate danger, not to mention everyone else. Ugh, she would never forgive herself for letting Jaune talk her into this stupid 'splitting up' plan! Splitting up in a castle of monsters was one of the three dictionary definitions of a bad idea, immediately after touching her hair and flirting like Jaune.

She stumbled as she climbed the stairs, her foot hitting the edge of the next stair and slipping so she nearly crashed face first into the edge of the next. The Huntress managed to throw her hand out and caught herself. "Dammit!" she hissed, slamming her palm into the ground before running up the stairs again.

As she approached the top, she jumped the last few stairs before sliding to a stop and looking around. "Jaune, where are –?"

She was cut off by a person dressed in gold and white armor with a rabbit ear helmet was tossed past her, screaming in a very familiar voice before slamming into the wall, quickly followed by a Keyblade that bounced off its head. "Oh, good, you aren't dead yet," Yang whispered in relief before running up to her partner and grabbing him by the upper arm. She yanked him up, momentarily surprised by how light his Keyblade armor was, and placed him on his feet. "What hit you?"

Jaune's head bobbed for a moment. Once it turned to his right – her left – his back went straight. "THAT!" Then he tackled her to the ground, armor vanishing. She blinked as a massive beam of green and black energy rocketed past them and blew a hole in the wall, continuing through it and slamming through more walls.

Yang turned her head towards the source of the attack her heart jumped into her throat, followed by relief, followed by guilt, then back to horror. Ichigo, not Jaune, had been the one to take a fatal blow in a fight with this... this... Yang pushed Jaune off of her and stood up. She fought off an urge to charge the monster in revenge for Ichigo, or Rukia who was impaled on the wall near him. "What the hell are you?!" she asked the pale, emotionless creature that had launched the bright green energy at them. "Besides a... I want to say emo clown bat?"

"Hilarious," the creature snarled.

"Please don't antagonize the scary monster," Jaune asked, voice worried. He summoned the Keyblade back to his hand. "Especially now that I don't have my armor to keep him from shredding my Aura and kidnapping me."

"I'm going batty trying not kill him, Jaune..."

Morrigan appeared beside them as Chad and Ishida sprinted towards Rukia and Ichigo, shouting for the both of them to wake up. The Nobody monotonously growled, "Could you avoid killing the creature until we have a better understanding of its abilities? Or more accurately, avoid _getting_ killed until we have a better understanding?"

"Just don't get killed? Easy," she raised her fists and rushed the monster, getting ready to dodge. She wasn't rushing in thoughtlessly, not right now. No, she knew exactly what she was doing – he was just going to shoot one of those lasers at them if they kept talking, eliminating all three at once. Get closer than his sword's reach allowed, then Yang could manage to get a few good blows in. Her Heart gave out a pang as she passed the dead Ichigo and – if Ishida and Chad's reactions were any indicator – unconscious and injured Rukia. Her friends, hurt again. This seemed to happen a lot to her. And then that Orihime girl was bound to a large lock, eyes locked on Ichigo's body. She herself was barely breathing, her movements so slight she appeared to be a statue.

Yang ducked under another green energy blast, then weaved past a thrown sword. "Ha! I've got -" she stopped talking as another sword appeared in his grasp, too close and moving too fast for her to dodge. "Shit."

Until she was saved by a golden and white Keyblade thrown over her shoulder, gleaming with energy. The green sword rebounded off of the attack and swerved out of Yang's path just as the Keyblade returned to its owner's hand. "I've got your back, Yang!" Jaune shouted, jumping over Yang and bringing his Keyblade down in a two handed, overhead blow.

Ulquiorra said nothing, though his annoyed glare said everything words could and more. He simply raised his glowing blade to take the blow, effortlessly managing to defend himself while raising his knee and bringing his other elbow down to catch Yang's fist and keep it from colliding with his chest. "Your attempts at combat are not amusing, Humans," he stated in his monotone.

"Disagree," Yang said with a grin. "Because I _also_ shoot things from my hands, in case you didn't know." And with that, she discharged a massive Sparkga from her fist. The explosion of light slammed into Ulquiorra's chest and he was sent rocketing backwards, leaving behind a cloud of dust that obscured him while his feet left a pair of inch deep tracks in the stone floor. Yang stood up straight. "That's just a spark of my brilliance, too!"

"As I said. Disappointing." Yang turned and saw that, once again, Ulquiorra was on top of her already, green blade halfway through its attack and ready to cleave her in two. Jaune had been caught flat footed and was scrambling to get close and get his Keyblade in the sword's way, eyes wide and full of rage as sparks of Darkness covered him at the idea of being to weak to save a friend yet again. Yang was throwing her arms up to take the blow on her bracers, but she instinctively knew it was a worthless endeavor. She was about to die to this... thing.

Only for the attack to freeze when a loud roar suddenly broke out, its madness shaking the very foundations of the room. Yang couldn't even appreciate it saving her life, because it chilled her to the bone.

Jaune, however, was worse off. He recognized that roar, to an extent. It was the scream of Ichigo's inner monster. His head turned towards the sound, and he was greeted with a horrifying sight. Ichigo was standing, sure. But the hole was still there in the middle of his chest, and something white was leaking out of his skin, rushing to form a dense armor. Horns began to grow from his head and the mask from when they had fought Byakuya had formed on his face, though it didn't stop there. Horns began to extend from the mask – which, rather than simply covering his face was _becoming_ it – and his hair began to extend to his waist. Red fur extended from his shoulders and forearms, and black began to extend from the hole in his chest , curling around his shoulders and into the fur. The horns curved as they continued to grow, until they formed demonic, hooked horns that had their tips in line with his eyes. The mask changed as well, black lines coming up and down his eyes, over his jaw, and coming together to form a reverse widows peak of white. The white continued down his body, turning his hands and feet that same bony color. Red fur extended from his ankles and, slowly, his fingers turned into horrifying black claws matched by his toes. The creature, which held Ichigo's sword in its hand, hissed and took a horrifying step forward, then launched itself as quickly as possible towards Ulquiorra, its roar never ceasing.

The bat like Arrancar barely managed to bring his blade up to block the Hollow's attack, and Jaune and the others definitely didn't have the time to guard against the sudden shockwave that expanded out from the blades and sent them each stumbling away from the fight. The chains that held Orihime to the wall turned to ash and the girl herself was nearly thrown into the wall. Ishida and Chad were able to catch themselves in the air and grab the unconscious Rukia. Being the closest to the attack, however, Jaune and Yang were thrown the furthest, the blow tearing the air from their lungs. They eventually landed in a heap, stunned from their collision with each other and then the ground, at Morrigan's feet.

"I told you to wait," the Nobody said, glaring humorlessly down at the Huntsman and Huntress.

"Shaddap," Yang groaned before deciding the floor was too nice to get off of, and she kept laying there.

Meanwhile, the two monsters were busy trading blows and jumping rapidly around the room. The Monster slashed upward at Ulquiorra, who narrowly leaned out of the way before flapping his wings and rushing to the other side of the room. He raised his hand and charged up a sphere of green energy on the first two fingers of his left hand. The Monster shrieked again as it saw this and a similar sphere of black and red formed between its two horns. The two blasts were unleashed at the same moment, forming two beams of energy that slammed into one another, mixing and swirling until the black and red seemed to slightly overpower the green and it carved through. Ulquiorra yelped as the black and red energy carved a small hole in his shoulder. "It would appear you are quite powerful," Uluiorra said with a grimace. He lowered his blade, and the hole in his shoulder quickly stitched itself shut. Then he flapped his wings and left behind a jetstream as he neared the Monster in barely a fraction of a second. The Monster was able to respond in time, however, slashing with Zangetsu and launching a powerful blade of black energy at Ulquiorra. The bat hollow's eyes widened as the energy appeared in his path and twisted sideways in an attempt to avoid the attack. The energy danced along his chest, slicing away a thin layer of skin that healed from his hyper regenerative abilities almost as soon as the wound appeared. His blade came down at the Monster as soon as the energy passed, vaporizing a section of the roof and suddenly letting the moonlight shine in. The Monster was too far in on its attack to dodge or block, and so Ulquiorra's blade hit home. The green energy cleaved through a section of the Monster's body, carving through the flesh like it was butter until the blade was nearly at the hole in the Monster's chest. But it didn't seem to do anything.

At a rate that surprised even Ulquiorra, the wound sealed shut, and the Monster seemed completely fine. The Monster's arm shot up and grabbed onto Ulquiorra's wrist, holding him in place as a sphere of energy appeared between its horns once again. Ulquiorra struggled to escape as he realized he had been trapped and that this... creature was far more troublesome than he had first expected. It took tremendous effort, but he was finally able to wrench his arm free from the Monster's grasp and flap his wings to shift sideways, only though it was far too late to totally avoid the blast that came his way. The arm he had spent so much time on saving was vaporized, turned into white ash as quickly as Raven running away from her family. Ulquiorra stifled a scream of pain as the wound was instantly cauterized by his opponent's Cero blast and his healing factor went into overdrive just in an attempt to keep the burn from sending him into shock. "How did you –?" The blade in the Monster sputtered and died, at which point the hole in the creature's chest sewed itself immediately shut.

The Monster roared again, a halting noise that sounded like an attempt at manic laughter, and moved its hand onto Ulquiorra's face, grasping it so hard that the black nails dug into white flesh, and it slammed the Arrancar headfirst into the floor. Once, twice, getting faster and faster until each blow was in time with its laughter. "Ichigo!" The Monster kept laughing, slamming the head into the ground and leaving a bloody stain on the white stone. "Ichigo! Wake up! Ichigo! Ichigo stop!"

The creature turned towards the source of the voice, finding Orihime standing beside the lock, leaning against it. She had a shallow cut along her brow, trailing blood down her face. "Ichigo, please, he's dead!"

The Monster stood up, still clutching Ulquiorra's head in its hand... then squeezed as hard as it could. The Arrancar's head _popped_ like a grape, sending blood and viscera spraying everywhere before the body itself began to slowly disintegrate. Orihime sighed, "Ichigo, I'm so glad you -"

The Monster roared and raised the blade in its right hand before turning on its heel, eyes locking on to Jaune. It took a half second of rest, then launched itself towards him. "OH, JEEZ!" the Keyblade wielder screamed, throwing himself to the side just a fraction of a second before the blade slammed into the ground where he had been standing, sending both him and Yang flying away from the force of the blow. Before he even landed, the Monster had turned and swung its blade upward. A black, fang shaped burst of energy flew from the weapon towards Jaune, who threw his weapon to the side and cast a Fire, the burst of energy causing the air to super heat and push Jaune out of the attack's way, if only barely. The Keyblade itself was still hit and the sheer force easily managed to tear the weapon from Jaune's grasp. He spun wildly and hit the ground, tumbling until he was able to get his feet beneath him and summon his blade back into his hand. "Yang, you okay?" Jaune shouted, weapon between him and the Monster wearing Ichigo again.

"Yeah! You?"

"Ehhh..." Jaune muttered. He shook his head and glared at Ichigo. "So, you're trying to kill me again? Ichigo didn't let you last time!"

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as it enraged the creature and it rocketed towards him again. It slashed at his left side, forcing Jaune to summon his Keyblade to his off hand and swing around to block it. A sparking and fragile Reflect wall sprang into being at the point of contact, reflecting the brunt of the blow and letting Jaune angle his weapon so that the rest of the force would cause the attack to slide over him. This both saved Jaune from instant death, and opened up the Monster for a blow from the Keyblade wielder. The weapon slammed into the Monster's gut, forcing it to double over and giving Jaune time to run past it, while Yang leaped forward and slammed her fist – charged with Fire magic – into its face. One of the horns cracked under the pressure of the blow and it flew back, the horn falling off before quickly being replaced by the Monster's regeneration factor.

The creature snarled and caught itself mid air, the air solidifying to form glowing steps beneath its feet. It hissed angrily, and fiery smoke slowly rose from its throat. "I think we only made it more mad," Yang said, having regrouped with Jaune. The both of them raised their weapons, hearts pounding in their ears, and waited for something to happen.

The thing to happen was a giant sphere of energy charging up between the Monster's horns. "Oh... no..." Jaune and Yang glanced at one another, then turned and sprinted away from one another. The Monster hesitated for a moment, unsure of who to get a bead on, then its head swung towards Jaune. The sphere between its horns grew for another few seconds, ready to be unleashed. That is, if it weren't for the other combatant.

Morrigan's blade flew down, cleanly cleaving through the horns of the monster. The sphere of energy imploded without the stabilizing force, and the energy collapsed before force flew right back out. The Monster made a confused noise as the energy slammed into it, and another as Morrigan vanished through another in-world Corridor of Darkness, reappearing at here Weakness' side. "There, that seems to have -" Morrigan and Yang didn't have time to do anything else, as a black and red 'X' of energy flew through the air, crashing into the both of them. Both women screamed as a glow ran across their skin – red and black for Morrigan, and a bright yellow across Yang's. They slid across the ground, dazed and showing heavy injuries all across their bodies; blood and traveling down their faces and their eyes slammed shut, unconsciousness taking them.

"Yang!" Jaune roared. He turned on the clearing smoke and the laughing Monster. "Dammit!" He sprinted towards the monster, charging up his Keyblade with energy, bringing it around to cleave through the monster's throat. Black clashed against black, Darkness swirling along the edge of both weapons

"I'll kill you if she's dead!" Jaune snarled as he pushed against the Monster, their strength at a momentary standstill as Jaune dug as deep as he could, not even seeing the Darkness on his Keyblade, not remembering that this was Ichigo. He had to stop this thing from hurting the people he cared about, anything else be damned.

"Ugh... what...?" Rukia pushed herself up to a sitting position, then yelped as pain ran through her shoulder. "Agh!"

The Monster's head whipped towards her for a second, then turned back to Jaune. "Kill you!" Then it laughed maniacally and backhanded him across the face, just hard enough for him to hit his knees, Keyblade hitting the ground to his right and the field of Darkness disappearing completely. The Monster loomed over him. "Ha ha ha ha... _Kill you_!"

"Oh, Dust," Jaune muttered. He felt the energy, the rage pulsing through his veins get replaced with fear and he knew that, even if he wanted to, he couldn't summon another shroud of Darkness to his weapon. Already he could tell that the super strength he had shown in their clash was leaving his muscles, to get replaced with human weakness. Of a fit, strong, Huntsman human, but human nonetheless.

"I-Ichigo?" The creature turned towards Rukia again, hesitating just long enough for Jaune to slam his newly resummoned Keyblade into the Monster's knee, shattering it. The Monster shrieked and fell to its back, and Jaune sprinted away to check on his partner. Rukia stumbled forward. "Ichigo, is that you?"

The creature hissed and locked its eyes on Rukia and took a deep shaking breath, then turned its eyes on Ishida and Chad and Orihime, who were congregating with the shorter Soul Reaper. It breathed heavily, seeing the damage they had all taken. Cuts, bruises... the pool of blood at Rukia's feet. The Monster shivered, the rage returning to its shoulders. "Ichigo, no, it's not their fault! It's not Jaune or Yang's fault I got hurt!" The rage continued to congregate in the Monster's shoulders as Ichigo was continuously bombarded within his heart by a stream of thoughts, all of them blaming the Keyblade wielder for the current events. He had become so weak, he had brought so much danger down on their heads. He was getting his friends hurt, he was going to get Rukia killed. He had to die.

Ichigo tried to deny it, but the stream kept coming. And the rage kept building. He couldn't help but lash out, and his body – controlled by his inner Hollow – reacted. Black energy charged along the edge of Zangetsu, swirling and full of malice.

"Do I have anything that can help with that?" Jaune muttered worriedly, wracking his brain. "Uh..." Jaune frowned. Well, he had _one_ idea. He hoped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small chain that ended in a tan pentagon. "Fingers crossed."

The Keychain was slammed onto the Keyblade, and there was a flash of energy. Black energy traveled up the Keyblade from the chain, melting the Keyblade and altering its shape, its color, and its feel in Jaune's hands. The golden guard turned into a bright white, the outside covered in segments not unlike Morrigan's armor. The shape of the guard became a more ridged square, with the top corners curving up like the roofs in Soul Society. The grip had turned from a black into a white, looking like the wrappings around the cleaver shape of Zangetsu. The blade had shifted into a deep black and thin blade, more akin to an actual sword than the Kingdom Key was even if it was the same length. The blade even ended in a katana like tip that made it look like the sword Ichigo's inner demons were currently holding. About a quarter of the way from the top of the blade, black and red, shifting metal moved like a wave of power, swirling around the blade until it became a blackened sun shape resting against the flat of the blade. He decided in the split second he had before the fight began again that that would be its name – Black Sun.

And then he had to look up from his weapon's new form, because a beam of black and red energy was rushing at them. Jaune threw the Keyblade up, knowing that if he did try to dodge, the .attack would fly past him and Why did he think that this Keychain would solve anything?

And then energy began to travel up the Keyblade's length, white and black swirling together as Light and Darkness chased each other around the Keyblade's length. Jaune watched it with wide eyes until the energy flew from the weapon's edge, creating a fang shaped blade of energy that slammed into the black and red beam. The energy collided, burning and bubbling until the energy could no longer be contained and the destruction was suddenly focused outward. Explosively.

Dust clouded Jaune's sight, obscuring the Monster from his view, but also obscuring him form its sight. He wasn't paying that much mind, however, because he recognized the attack his Keyblade had just shot. White-Black Getsuga Tenshou, the attack he had done with Ichigo during their fight with Byakuya, and one composed of equal parts Light and Dark. He shook off his fear of using the Darkness again when the smoke was blown out of the way by a fast moving object, the Monster launching itself at Jaune once again.

Jaune snarled and jumped forward as well, bringing Black Sun in an uppercut slash that slammed into Zangetsu, Light and Dark sparking from the point of contact. He pulled away and spun, delivering a kick to the Monster's face, which didn't do much, but using the Keyblade as he continued let him carve a deep gash into its chest. "Light Dark Getsuga Tenshou!" Jaune snapped when the blade was still in the creature's flesh, and the energy burned a deeper gash in it. The Monster stumbled back and clutched at its chest, hissing in pain. Jaune smiled at his momentary advantage, suddenly feeling his old strength coming back to him.

That advantage vanished when the Monster capitalized on his lack of attention, landing a solid blow of its blade into his midsction. Jaune felt a chunk of his Aura vanish just to keep him from dying, not to mention healing the non-lethal damage. He was tossed across the room, feeling rather than hearing the air _boom_ where had been standing, soaring until the Monster reappeared behind him. Jaune turned midair and slashed at it, their blades colliding again and causing the ground beneath them to shatter from the resultant explosion of pressure. Jaune bounced slightly, giving him time to spin midair and slash again, blades once more catching on one another. They continued slashing, trading blows. Jaune letting loose a Getsuga that nearly chopped off Ichigo's hand, the Monster using a beam of energy from its horns to try and burn off Jaune's left leg. The Keyblade crashed into Zangetsu and they pushed. "Ich... Ichigo! W-wake up! Now!" Jaune snapped as he pressed against his friend once more, though without the murderous intent in his Heart this time. The Monster hissed menacingly and ignored him, just pushing harder and harder.

"Ichigo!" Jaune grunted. He was losing this shoving match, that much was obvious. This Keyblade's interaction with this world's Heart and his own desperation had given him an adrenaline boost of strength and speed, but he could already feel it wearing off. It was only a matter of time until – He flinched as the black sword nicked his arm again. It was only a matter of time until he ended up skewered or burned to a crisp. He jumped out of the path of another beam, only for the blade and a Getsuga to crash into his chest. He gasped in pain and was sent flying, golden light tinged with black swirling over his skin until he slammed into the wall just beside the lock. His chin hit his chest and his eyes began to droop; he was too tired to move, much less fight. But he had to, he had to... He... the world was getting really dark all of a sudden, and he just felt like taking a nap.

What did he have to do again? He looked up at the Monster looming above him.

Oh right. Not die. Would Yang live, or... His eyes dropped despite his best attempts to keep them open. Yang... had to be okay, right? She...

The Monster raised its sword and grinned at his pain. Then it brought it down, right onto the white sword held out above Rukia. She struggled against the strength of the blow, but somehow managed to hold firm. The Monster hissed and took a step back before trying to go around her and attack Jaune. Again, the girl moved into the Zanpakuto's path and saved the Keyblade Wielder's life. "Ichigo... stop!" Rukia commanded. She glowered up at him from where she was blocking, one arm dangling uselessly at her side. Blood dripped from her fingers, and her already snow white skin was becoming deathly pale. "Snap out of it, you moron! With all that hair, people will _never_ stop calling you Strawberry"

The Monster growled at her, unsure of what to make of this sudden change.

Ichigo, however, knew exactly what to make of it. _Strawberry_ he wondered inside his deepest Heart, Light finally breaking through the visions so he could see. He blinked. _Who does that midget think she is!?_

The Monster flailed and retreated. _No, I'm trying to get rid of a threat! He's drawing more in! Heartless, the other him! He's_ _ **too**_ _dangerous, King! No him, no threats we can't deal with!_

"He's your friend, Dolt!" Rukia snapped, advancing on the Monster.

 _He's dangerous!_

"And you're acting like a monster ready to take someone's friend from them! You're executing someone's friend!"

 _He's my friend!_ Ichigo snapped back at the voice. The Monster flailed again and began to scream in pain as it began to fall apart. Cracks appeared along its flesh, white armor began to grow brittle and shatter, and entire chunks of its body began to fall off. The hole in its chest began to stitch itself up, becoming whole – Jaune, semi conscious at this point, knew Yang would have laughed at that wordplay. Whole holes are becoming whole. Or would she? He was tired. The creature shrieked and unleashed another blast of energy from its horns, though it went wide and demolished part of the roof instead.

"Yes, fight it, Kurosaki!" Ishida shouted, surging to his feet to stand beside Rukia. Chad wordlessly did the same.

"Ichigo, I know you can do it!" Orihime begged, taking her place beside her friends.

Then the monster stopped, falling forward... and off of Ichigo. "What'd I miss?" he asked before he, too, fell face first to the ground.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Jaune lowered the Keyblade, still in the shape of Black Sun, to his side as the lock began to fade away. He sighed and let the Keyblade fade, black and white lightning crackling around his hand for a moment as the weapon faded away. He sighed and stared up at the ceiling, thinking about all the things that had just happened. Darkness, death, madness. If it hadn't happened around Sora so much, Jaune might think it was following just him around. He shook his head and turned around, where the rest of the group was congregated, even Morrigan. He frowned at her. "So... what are you going to do now?"

The Nobody met his fiery glare. "I believe that it is in our best interest, for now, to call a truce. We are all injured. I know that our paths will cross again, and fate will take us where it may," she explained coolly. She cast a glance at Yang. "Perhaps we will be forced allies again, or perhaps one of us shall die."

Yang glared at her, jaw set with anger. "Fine. See you around then," she growled, arms crossing over her chest.

Morrigan frowned. Then, despite what she knew she should do, whispered so quiet that it barely registered in her own ears, "Goodbye... Firecracker." Morrigan turned and walked away, summoning and walking through a Corridor to where the winds of fate would take her.

"Anyways... thanks for helping us," Ichigo said, his shredded uniform still unrepaired and exposing his chest and feet. His sword was back in its cleaver form, acting like a crutch for the exhausted Soul Reaper.

"Do you have anything else to say!?" Rukia snapped, slamming her hand into the top of her friend's head.

"Ow! How did you even reach all the way up here!?" Ichigo snapped back at her, eyes full of fake rage. Finally, he sighed and turned back to Jaune, Yang, and Morrigan. "Uh... sorry. You know, for almost killing you."

"Is it a pattern, cause I'd really rather not come back here if it is," Jaune joked, earning an exasperated laugh from his friend.

Ichigo sighed. "So, you can transform your weapon, too, huh?" he asked Jaune.

"Kind of, it's..." He shrugged and raised his hand, using his Heart to force the weapon back into its Kingdom Key form. "It's that Keychain that Ukitake guy gave me. It makes the Keyblade closer to this world and gives it new powers."

"Sounds useful. I wonder if there's a way for that to be incorporated into our abilities," Ishida muttered to himself, pushing his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. "Though, what do you mean by 'this world?'"

"Uh... He meant the spirit world! The Keyblade is from the human world, after all," Yang interjected, always the more convincing liar than her partner. She shrugged. "It's an old weapon. Really old. _REALLY_ old."

"Ha! That must explain why the Captain-Commander knew to give it to you," Rukia said, snapping her fingers. "He is the oldest being in Soul Society and knows things almost no one else does! He would know where it comes from. What do you know about it?"

"Er... not much," Jaune admitted with a shrug. He looked over at Ichigo. "What do you know about... what happened to you?"

Ichigo sighed and let his head fall. "It's happened before. That monster on the inside takes over and... I don't know. Everything gets so much stronger, but I can't control myself. I've almost killed so many people because of this." The young man suddenly looked very... old and tired, as if he was suddenly allowing the weight of the world that he carried on his back to show, and it was crushing him. Jaune understood that weight all too well, and had seen this weariness in multiple people, crushing them. Then Ichigo pushed himself up, shouldering the weight once again. "Which just means I have to get it under control so I can use it to take Aizen down!"

Chad nodded, and simply said, "Though given our injuries, perhaps we should wait for that. Go home and regroup."

"And we have to be off to our next adventure!" Yang shouted, looping her arm around Jaune's shoulder and tugging him towards her, throwing him off balance. "I think we did pretty good against Bat Boy this time around! We've gotten a lot stronger, haven't we, Jauney Boy?"

 _Speak for yourself_ , Jaune wanted to say. Still, he nodded to make her happy. Happy Yang didn't fly like a maniac. Well, less like a maniac. "Maybe we'll win a fight for once, right?"

Ichigo scoffed. "Just wait till we take the fight to Aizen! That's going to be -"

"Insanely difficult and awful?" Jaune suggested.

"Painful and life ending?" Rukia added.

"Foolish and life ending?" Ishida added.

"Inevitable and fun!" Yang shouted excitedly. She pumped her fist. "He'll be scared to death!"

"... Okay. Okay, that joke wasn't bad," Jaune admitted despite knowing that would just get Yang to make more _bad_ ones.

"You're dead on, there," Yang said, already confirming his worst fears.

"Yang you're killing us!" Rukia snapped, only for everyone to blanche as they realized that was an accidental pun, and Yang was laughing even harder.

"With that, I'll get her out of your hair," Jaune said, earning a grateful smile from Ichigo's group. He grabbed Yang's yellow jacket and pulled her towards the hole Ichigo's monster had created in the roof, revealing the bright white moonlight. Jaune turned back to the group. "We'll see you guys soon, kay?"

"Definitely," Ichigo said with a tired wave.

Rukia snorted. "Just make sure to bring some of that Pumpkin Pete's for me... or else!"

Jaune laughed once, then shot a thumbs up. "You got it. It is the best cereal."

He sighed, and a green light erupted around them. "Just remember to control that... thing, okay, Ichigo? I told you I know about Darkness, so I know it gets easier to give in every time. Don't."

Ichigo's features grew grim, worry coating his face. "I won't," he promised.

Jaune nodded back, then let the energy of the Gummi Ship tear them away from this world and into its cockpit. The Keyblade wielder sighed wearily and plopped down in the co-pilot's seat, burying his face in his hands. After a second, he ran one through his hair and stared, exhausted, out of the window. His back hunched over, exhaustion evident.

Yang noticed, despite the belief that she was not very observant. She was – a Huntress had to be after all. The brawler took a deep breath, then prepared to deal with Jaune's problem. She jumped into the chair next to him, legs hanging over one arm of the chair and her back resting on the other. Then she grew silent, waiting for him to speak.

"Yang, you saw it."

"Well, I'm not blind," the woman admitted with a shrug. She laced her fingers behind her head and leaned back, letting her hair hit the ground while she looked out at the infinite Darkness. "I was conscious only half the time, but I saw."

"Darkness. Every single time that I try to get away from it I let it pull me back in. Hell, I pull it back," he groaned, pulling one hand up and resting his chin on it. His eyes darkened, losing some of their optimistic shine.

Yang wasn't sure how to respond. She had never had this kind of problem, after all. If she set her mind to something, she did it. Easy as that. Being a great fighter, being a Huntress, being a semi-finalist in the Vytal festival in her first year, coming back from losing her arm, meeting her mom. She made it happen.

Jaune did the same, but it never worked out for him in the way he wanted. He wanted to be a hero, but he almost ended up destroying everything. He wanted to find someone to love, but she died in his arms. But it did turn out all right in the end. He was a hero. And Pyrrha _had_ loved him.

"And now it's saved our lives more times than I want to count." Jaune hadn't moved at all, Yang noticed when she sat back up and studied him. But there was a cloud hanging over him that kept growing. "When all I want is to be a hero, this... _thing_ is like an addiction I can't shake!"

"But it saved us, and it's not like you've thought about killing people. You're not a bad guy," Yang pointed out, literally pointing at him.

"Yet." He looked over at her. "It saved us, I know... but no. I'm not doing it again."

Yang scoffed. "You're sounding like a broken record, Jaune." He turned, glaring at her for that, but she just shrugged and said, "I mean, you keep saying this but you keep using it. If you'd rather be strong without it, fine. That's all you. But – and I'm sorry if this sounds mean, Jaune. You're my friend. But you can't keep complaining when you make a decision. At the end of the day, do it or don't do it. As long as you aren't a bad guy, Jaune, I don't care. If you can live with what you do and I can live with what you do..." She shrugged.

Jaune glared at her for a moment, digesting everything she'd just said to him. Until, finally, he turned away. "Let's just get going, Yang."

She stared at him for a moment, concerned. If he kept acting like that, he would never move on. Not from Pyrrha or his past actions, both of which he had promised the late red head he would accept and move past. She stared at him for a moment, hoping he would say something else, then sighed and swept her legs off the chair so she could easily grab the controls. "We're still friends."

"Yeah, we are," Jaune sighed. He forced a smile. "I've got your back."

Yang smiled back. "Thanks," she activated the acceleration, and the ship flew off at a calm pace for once. Jaune appreciated that, and he showed it with a grin. "Gaia, here we come."


	20. Storm Cloud

**AN: Remembered name of FF7 world was _Gaia,_ not Midgar, so I changed that in the last chapter.**

 **I know it's been a while. Again. I'm sorry. There have been issues at home that I've had to deal with, so that's the big thing. Then, it's also hard to write about a game you've never played, so I had to work on trying to figure out how to do that. Then my mom broke her hand and I've had to shoulder a lot of... everything to keep things sane. But I have been writing whenever I could, I swear!**

 **Okay, quick announcement. I have a poll up on my profile about which story I should start after I finish my Elder Scrolls one. If there's a tie, I'll come up with some way to differentiate. The basic ideas for the three stories up for vote are on my profile. It'll close when I finish the Elder Scrolls story, so in one or two chapters.**

 **Finally, responses!**

 **To Gamelover41592: Yeah, I loved Jaune's attempt at being cool. As usual, he does what he set out to do, but he didn't end up looking cool. Maybe next time.**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: A Kingdom Hearts D &D sounds awesome. I wish there were more rulebooks out there in the style of the Star Wars Role Playing Game, you know? More franchises could use a well made adaptation of some tabletop rules. I can't wait for more custom Keyblades, either. Not every world will have one, just for sake of making my life easier, but I'll try to come up with good ones when I do. I hope you enjoy the first half of this trip to Gaia!**

 **To DragoonSensei: Thanks, again, for pointing that out. If you see anything like that again, just tell me and I'll fix it as soon as I can.**

 **To Remnant7: You're right, I'll never think of the song the same way again. Also, how is FFXV? It looks pretty fun, but I haven't got a chance to play anything but the demo.**

 **To Kyle Preston Ross: I'm really happy you are having fun with my Kingdom Hearts x RWBY stories, especially if you find them binge worthy. Also, I have answers:**

 **1: So, yes and no. Jaune's skills are getting sharper, but... he's thinking about trying to restrain his darkness or to draw specifically on Light. So, he's getting better, but he's going through like four steps before he actually does anything. As you'll see here, against normal people that's still pretty good. Against Heartless or Sephiroth, less so.**

 **2:So, Jaune will not have drive forms. Sorry. But there are a couple other things I have planned that you'll just have to wait and see.**

 **3:I'm sorry, but these are the only worlds that I have planned to show up in this fic. Now, I occasionally veer off plan if I feel like it, for instance the entire bit on Menagerie in the first book, but I wouldn't expect more worlds.**

 **Finally, I don't want to spoil anything with Jaune and Yang. Whether they do end up together or not, I hope it seems in character for both of them.**

 **To oftheforgotten: I'm sorry, but I don't have any plans to visit One Piece any time soon. I know Sora looks cool in Pirate clothes, but I just don't think it's in the cards right now.**

 **Anyways, enjoy the next chapter!**

 _ **Chapter 20:Storm Cloud**_

"This is... very different," Jaune said, confused by the small city that they had landed in, its oceanic view and stunning sunset over the ocean a far cry from the sleepy mountain village they had seen when last on Gaia. He rolled up his sleeves slightly and took a deep breath of the warm air. It was nice, even if he was absolutely sure something bad had happened. It always was like that when they got somewhere, after all.

"Reminds me of Patch... but warmer. It's kind of nice," Yang said, sliding her sunglasses off the bridge of her nose and on top of her head. "Good sunset for a date."

"Well, at least some things about this place don't change," Jaune remarked dryly as they stopped on the corner of the sidewalk.

Yang shot him a look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Jaune scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Last time we were here, you were all, 'Oh, Sephiroth! Swoooooon!'"

"Was not," Yang snapped at his grinning face. His grin widened, causing her hair to flare up for a moment. "Shut up!"

Jaune shrugged. "Okay, okay. Cool it," he remarked, earning a chuckle from Yang.

Yang shook her head and her hair returned to its natural state. "Fine. But only because you made a punny."

Jaune sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. The city was quiet, but busy. People were milling about in various types of dress, ranging from beach attire to suits, but they all seemed rather content with their home. It seemed almost idyllic, with as quiet and peaceful as it was. Jaune and Yang usually got jumped by Heartless the moment they got somewhere, so the fact that they'd gone a full twenty minutes without seeing one was a good sign. And good signs only made Jaune more uneasy, like Vale during the Amity festival.

"Wait a second, I recognize that girl," Yang whispered into Jaune's ear. He turned and saw Yang nod her head towards their collective right, towards a young woman in a very short black skirt with a white crop top. Her red boots were carrying her fast as she ran, and looked as ready for combat as her metal studded red gloves and the studded elbow pads she wore over black sleeves that started at her bicep. Brown suspenders connected to the top of the skirt, just over a loosely done belt, and around her neck, hidden by her long, luxurious black hair that hung loose until it was bound almost at the very end by a strap of red cloth. Her figure was very thin, but graced with sharp definition and finely tuned muscle. Jaune couldn't help but stare at her large... presence. Like she was parting the crowds with her determination. Jaune looked at Yang, and the two silently agreed to follow. While they didn't _remember_ this girl, she did seem oddly familiar, and that was better than anything else they had.

"Don't think I didn't catch you looking, Jaune," Yang whispered when they were a distance away from the girl that they wouldn't lose her, but also likely wouldn't be noticed.

The Keyblade wielder's face turned as red as Yang's eyes did when she was angry. "I... I wasn't, I swear!" he hissed nervously. "Really, Yang, I -" He stopped as he noticed that she was snickering at him, barely able to hold in her joy at seeing him so flustered.

"That wasn't nice," Jaune whispered, which only earned more stifled laughter from his partner.

"Oh, come on," Yang whispered a moment later, still grinning at him. "You're a guy. It's normal to look at un-Remnantly bazongas." She began laughing at her own joke. "Un-Remnantly – because it's not Remnant."

"You were setting that joke up?" Jaune asked, his flustered embarrassment for himself replaced with flustered embarrassment on her behalf. "Yang, you're better than that. Puns, sure, but that?"

"Oh, come on. I know you're not a creep, Jaune. I mean, you don't stare at my chest all the time," Yang pointed out, and the embarrassment became his own again. They turned a corner, still close behind the mystery girl. "You know that you'd be dead if you stared without an invitation."

"Yang, please stop," Jaune groaned, feeling like his aura itself was going to change from yellow into an embarrassed red if this went any further. "I swear, I always stop myself if it happens, no matter what." He palled, the blood finally leaving his face. "I – I mean -"

"Oh, stop. You're fine," Yang remarked with a grin, patting his head. "Come on, Good Boy, we have Worlds to save, remember?" Then she pointed at the woman entering what looked to be a hospital.

"But you were – Trying to make me angry," he growled to himself. Of course she was. It's what she did to him, that weird cross between bullying and friendship. Almost like family. So he followed her into the hospital, hoping they could find some answers about everything going on in Gaia in the past... however long it had been since they'd last been there. Hopefully not _too_ much longer than the real flow of time. That would be weird to explain again.

The first thing they saw when the entered was the young woman glaring at them with her fists at the ready. "Okay, who are y – wait, I recognize you guys," the young woman's hands fell to her side. "You were..." her face darkened with pain. "Nibelheim."

Jaune and Yang traded a glance. That as how they knew her – she was the only person they had been able to save from Sephiroth's army of Heartless. "That was us," Yang nodded, walking up and putting her hand on the girl's shoulder in an effort to comfort her.

"Are you okay?" Jaune asked. His eyes widened. "Is Cloud?"

At that, the girl's face fell, obscured now by her hair. "Nice," Yang hissed at him.

"I was just asking!" he mouthed defensively.

"If you're wondering if he survived Nibelheim, he did. Recently, though, he – Well, it'll be easier to show you." She turned and motioned for them to follow her. The two Hunters traded a worried look once more, then moved in tandem.

After a few moments, the group of three arrived at a hospital bed, nondescript in its differences from the others. Aside, that is, from the shining blue-green eyes and massively spiked hair that rested atop the pillow. Cloud was there, but it was obvious that there was nobody home behind those eyes. Jaune leaned against the bed and examined the young man while Yang wandered over to the side of the bed where a massive sword rested. Her eyes hardened; that was Zack's sword. So he really was dead. Another friend lost, it seemed. "He said you were old friends." Jaune stood up straight and turned to the girl, while Yang's eyes simply flicked away from the sword. "You knew it was him, then?"

"He's not exactly a good liar. Can't fake his voice for anything," she pointed out. Her hair heaved up and down as she sighed and held out her hand. "I'm Tifa, in case you didn't know."

"Yang. I'm the pretty one that does all the work," Yang said, taking her hand. She looped her hand around Jaune's shoulder. "And he's Jaune."

The Knight glared at his partner. "Flattering introduction, Yang."

"I think it put me in a nice light," Yang joked and punching her partner's shoulder.

"I can't believe you two helped Zack and Cloud fight Sephiroth. You're kinda... idiots," Tifa said bluntly, confusion at the two outworlders evident on her face.

"Only most of the time," Jaune said defensively, earning a dry laugh from Yang. "The rest of the time we're cool."

"I know. You saved my life," Tifa pointed out again, crossing her arms. "Doesn't make it any easier to believe." The woman sat down on the edge of the bed and placed her hand over that of the sleeping warrior, pain and worry flashing across her face.

Jaune bit his cheek for a moment before he finally asked, "So... what happened?" he wondered aloud.

Tifa kept looking at Cloud for a while, then leaned back and glanced over at the two. "The past four years have been pretty bad," she explained sullenly. "Ever since you arrived with Zack, Cloud, and Sephiroth, the world's gone downhill." Sadness colored her features. "And that's saying something."

"It can't be _that_ bad," Jaune supplied in attempt to comfort Tifa. "I mean, this place seems pretty nice!"

"If you aren't paying attention," Tifa growled pointedly. Her fingers wrapped around Cloud's, turning white from the tightening grip. "People are disappearing, and not only because of the Heartless. Shinra is destroying the world and killing anyone that gets in their way." She let go of Cloud's hand. "And Sephiroth is -"

"Wait, stabbed in the chest by Cloud Sephiroth? _That_ Sephiroth?" Yang asked in disbelief. "We saw him die. And, wasn't Shinra the good guys? They sent Zack and Cloud to help Nibelheim, right?"

"And then kidnapped them and experimented on them for the past four years," Tifa said bitterly. "Killed Zack, too, if everything that Sephiroth said turns out to be true. Those monsters apparently tore apart Zack's memories and shoved them into Cloud's head."

"Dust..." Jaune muttered, horrified.

Yang turned her head to look over at Cloud. "So, what _has_ happened?" she asked, voice even to hide her anger. What the hell was happening in this world? Sure, Shinra had studied Sephiroth and Cloud, but it hadn't seemed like they were evil. Assholes, sure, but not evil.

"Well, we joined a freedom fighting group dedicated to righting the wrongs of Shinra and preventing the destruction of the planet!"

"So... a terrorist group?" Jaune asked simply.

"What? No! We were just keeping them from destroying the world with their mining techniques!" Tifa snapped defensively.

"By..?" Yang wondered, fighting off a smile.

"... Blowing the facilities up," Tifa hissed under her breath.

"Ah... so you _were_ ," Jaune said.

"They're mining the actual Heart of the world! And they won't stop! We _tried_ pamphlets and legal change first!" Tifa growled, surging to her feet.

"You still – wait, they're _what?_ " Jaune asked, cutting himself off when he realized what she had just said. "'Mining the Heart of the world?'"

"Yes. Actually. They followed those Heartless things and found it. Energy, power... Light. And the more Light they take..."

"The more Heartless appear, everywhere," Jaune finished, shutting his eyes and feeling his energy leave his body.

"Bingo, Blondie," Tifa said, pointing at him. She sighed. "Once we put that together and we knew they wouldn't stop, that nobody would listen, we had to do something. I dragged Cloud into AVALANCHE so I could keep an eye on him and we could get some more help, and then we just kept picking up strays."

Tifa shook her head and walked away from the bed slightly. "Until we got found out and they blew up half a city to kill us."

"Wait. A company? Killed _that_ many customers?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, and?" Tifa asked, wondering why she was confused.

Jaune cut in. "Well, it's just not good business. I get them not believing that they're mining the Heart of the World. It sounds crazy if you think about it too long. It's true, but it does. But destroying the world or killing a huge chunk of their customer base? That's just... Stupid."

"Schnee did it."

"Yeah, and he was an idiot, too."

"True."

They turned back to Tifa. "Then what?" Yang inquired simply when it became clear Tifa was not going to continue, confused as she was by their behavior.

"W-well..." she muttered. She shook her head. "Well, we escaped the city, chasing Sephiroth for framing us for murder."

"But not for terrorism," Yang pointed out, grinning at Tifa's angry glare.

" _Anyway_ ," Tifa continued through gritted teeth. She sighed and ran a hand through her long hair. "It wasn't long until we caught up with him, with Sephiroth, and... and he killed one of ours. Cloud went crazy. He, he tried to kill Sephiroth, but the bastard told him the truth. Cloud broke and, and it was like parts of him just left. Sephiroth got even stronger, said he was even closer to destroying this world and moving on. Meanwhile, Cloud just... the only thing keeping him alive is the hospital, now."

She walked back to Cloud and gripped his hand. "He's been out like this for weeks, and he's only getting worse," she said, voice breaking as the sentence went on. "I can't lose him again."

Yang looked over at Jaune, and found he was just staring at her with the same look. _Go talk to her! You understand what she's going through!_

They both raised their eyebrows. _What do you mean!?_ _ **You**_ _understand her!_

They grew more flabbergasted at that before both realized that, in some way, they each knew what the girl was going through. "Well, you're handling it better than I did," Jaune offered first. He grimaced anxiously. "Once, I lost someone important to me. I thought it was the worst pain imaginable. And then someone offered me the chance to get her back, someone who I thought actually _could_ do it. So I took it, even though it meant betraying everyone I knew and loved. I was so afraid of losing her again that I let myself spiral out of control." He frowned at the confused and worried look Tifa was giving him. "I just mean, Cloud isn't dead yet, and he wants you – not _would_ want you – to stay strong for him."

"Jaune may not look it, but everything he's been through has given him a pretty good grasp of what love is," Yang explained, looping an arm around Jaune's shoulders. "And he's been strong for me, too. I mean, I am trying to convince my mom not to kill me. So, if I can keep doing that, you can wait for Cloud to definitely wake up, right?"

"You two aren't good at this, and yet I find myself somewhat comforted," Tifa scoffed, a smirk crossing her face. "You know, Cloud didn't remember everything, but he remembered you two. Kinda. I think you being here is fate, then." She looked between the two and smiled softly. "That gives me hope."

"Aw... We're just like Sora and Ruby, then!" Yang shouted, punching her partner in the shoulder. He yelped and rubbed at the bruise, the noise earning an angry glare from the staff of the hospital. She frowned and placed a finger on her chin. A wicked grin spread across her face and she looked at Jaune out of the corner of her eyes. "Though we don't kiss as much as they do."

Jaune's throat dried up. "Yang, stop with that, would you?" he mumbled, embarrassment burning his face.

"I know, I know. You're not ready to dance again," she said, waving her right hand as she did. Then she pointed at herself. "And no way are you ready for my smoking hot moves."

Jaune rubbed the bridge of his eyes. "So, then what's the plan, Tifa?"

The brunette sighed. "I don't have one, to be honest," she admitted sullenly. "I have to stay here with Cloud, I can't leave him. Not even to find Sephiroth."

"Couldn't you do that weird Heart thing, Jaune?"

The Keyblade wielder blanched and turned to Yang. "Sora doesn't even like doing that! He said only a Keyblade Master should try it... and even then, they shouldn't!" he hissed to his partner. "Besides, I don't even know how."

"Oh, don't be such a first year Jaune, Jaune," the brawler retorted. She pointed at Cloud, past an increasingly confused Tifa. "Stab our friend in the Heart and wake him up."

That, understandably, went over poorly. "You want to what!?" Tifa snapped, surging to her feet, fists clenched as she readied for a fight.

Jaune slapped his forehead. It was going to be a long day, wasn't it?

 _ **R W B Y**_

After they managed to calm Tifa down and explain exactly what they meant, Jaune still wasn't feeling any better about this plan, even if she was. He was painfully aware how dangerous it was to mess with someone's Heart, if only because it had been done to him three times now. Maybe more, he couldn't quite remember if Salem had done it more often. Still, it was an entirely uncomfortable experience when done right, and beyond painful if done wrong. He'd spent weeks tortured inside his own body, locked away without power to do anything, so he was worried he might accidentally screw up and do something along those lines.

Still, he had to admit that he would much rather something bad happen after he tried to fix it than do nothing and have something bad happen. At least then he tried to make things better, right?

So, that was the gist of how they ended up with Jaune holding his Keyblade over Cloud's Heart from where he and the others sat on a couch beside the bed. The curtains were drawn, hiding them from any doctors or nurses that would wonder what the hell they were doing drawing a weapon on their patient. "So we just, what, read his mind?" Tifa asked, not quite sure if she believed everything going on.

Jaune thought about all the complicated things he'd learned from Sora... that Sora didn't even really understand. Then Jaune thought about the confusing aspects of his journey into his own Heart. "Um..." he muttered from the other side of Yang, "Yeah."

Tifa frowned at his tone, but decided not to latch onto his hesitation. If there was anything he was hiding or didn't know how to explain, she would figure out soon enough. "Then let's do this."

"Okay, just um... let me, er, figure this out."

"You've never done it before?" Tifa hissed.

"It's been done _to_ me about a dozen times," he explained nervously.

"You're inspiring confidence, Jaune," Yang sighed from between them. She turned to Tifa. "Look, he's smart. He'll figure it out."

The Keyblade wielder smiled. "Thanks, Yang." He turned his attention back to the Keyblade above Cloud. Well, Sora said Hearts were connected, always. So, might as well start by looking for that connection in his own. He shut his eyes, sifting between the different feelings he had when meeting different people. Eventually, he focused on that camaraderie that he had felt with Cloud. A desire they both felt to be more than they were. He slowly twisted the Keyblade, then opened his eyes.

No longer were they in the hospital. The world had gone dark, save for a column of Light emanating from above. "Well, on the bright side you didn't kill us," Yang muttered simply as she stared up at the Light.

"And there's the pun," Jaune grunted, ignoring the dull ache in his back where he'd slammed ungracefully into the pillar. He squinted up at the light for a moment, then looked back over at Yang, now holding her hand out to help him up. He gladly took it and was quickly hoisted to his feet by the powerful blonde, overshooting because of the sudden change in momentum and nearly tumbling into the woman. He caught himself in time, blushing profusely, and turned away hurriedly. "Where's Tifa?"

"What the hell is that?"

Jaune turned to the source of the voice, cheeks still red. She was staring at the floor, frowning with worry. "What is what?" he asked as he moved slowly towards her. Yang crossed her arms and stayed where she was, simply turning her head to the ground to get a look. Jaune stood next to Tifa before he checked out the stain glass they stood upon.

At first glance, it seemed normal. Cloud sat in the middle of the scene, face serene and eyes shut. The Buster Sword was dangling precariously from his hand, as if ready to tumble into oblivion. He was wearing an all black outfit, the same outfit that Zack had once worn when Jaune and Yang had met him, a SOLDIER uniform designed for combat and freedom of movement. But then he started to see everything that was wrong. By leaning to the side, the figure on the ground slowly shifted. Blond hair grew longer and turned deep black, the face shifting shapes slightly. Zack?

"Why is Sephiroth on the pillar?" Tifa's head whipped over to Yang

"I see Zack." Tifa explained.

"And I see something worse," Jaune explained, his eyes freezing to Yang's right. He nodded and the two women turned, freezing at the sight of Darkness encroaching on the pillar. The inky blackness was burning away at the stain glass, already it had destroyed a large chunk of the silhouettes of people important to the Heart. One had been torn apart entirely, dissolved in the destructive force entirely. The other outer rings were starting to vanish as well, one of a large group of people, and another with a pair of blonde heads, one a nervous young man and the other a confident – maybe overconfident, even – young woman. The one in the center was completely fine, however, resisting the Darkness more than any other. It didn't take a genius to see that the figure at the center was Tifa, long sweeping brown hair and a pose not unlike Yang's flexing arms.

"So what do we do now?" Tifa wondered, her worried eyes never leaving the shadows.

"We look for Cloud. Since he's in this coma, he's probably chained up in here somewhere," Jaune explained sullenly. "And judging by my own experience he needs someone important to him to save him. Ideally the most important."

"Then we're shit out of luck," Tifa mumbled wearily. She walked up to the edge of the pillar and glared out at the emptiness. "The most important person in Cloud's life got a sword planted through her chest. Without Aerith we can't save him, not like this."

Jaune and Yang traded a look, asking 'Really?' Well, if she couldn't admit that she cared about him because he had loved someone else, then she was right. There was no way they could save Cloud like this. Still, they had to try. Cloud was their friend, even if they'd only ever met him once. "Well, he and Sephiroth share a Heart, but they have to have some kind of... gate that can separate them. We just need to find this gate and shut it."

Yang walked up beside Jaune. "But that won't bring back what Cloud has lost, will it?" Yang asked, voice a quiet whisper.

"Best I've got," he replied. He turned his attention back to Tifa. "We need to find a way to get to another pillar, or to find a door of some kind."

As if in response to his statement, thin steps of Light appeared in the void. They faded in and out of existence, whatever energy Cloud could spare to hold them together already failing. But it was enough. Another source of Light slowly flickered on and another pillar appeared at the end of the pathway. "Well, this is a good first step," Yang muttered at the stepping stones. She slowly turned, revealing a far too proud grin at what she'd just said.

"Why?" Tifa asked, horrified by the pun. "Why would you do that to us?"

"It's a pillar of her character," Jaune said, earning a laugh from Yang. "That was an accident, Yang!"

"Still loved it," the brawler replied nonchalantly. She sighed and turned back to the steps. "Well, we better hurry." Then she took off running, Tifa not far behind.

"Be careful, they seem to be... And, they're not listening," Jaune muttered. "Disappearing stairs, and they ignore me." He shrugged in defeat, and followed behind – significantly more cautious than those he traveled with. He wasn't going to end up plunging to his death in the Darkness of Cloud and Sephiroth's joint Heart by not being careful.

It didn't take too long to reach the other side, surprising the Keyblade wielder. When he had traveled through his own Heart with Sora and Ren, there had been a lot of resistance from the Darkness in his own Heart. A bunch of Heartless, or at least some kind of copy of them. Cloud's Heart had none of that. He wondered why that was, but he wasn't going to look this gift horse in the mouth.

This second pillar was very different from the first. For starters, the figure at the center was clear and lacked any of the transient nature that Cloud's facade had. Sephiroth dominated the entire floor, his figure awake and standing with his arms out, as if basking in the Light above. No, that didn't sound right. He was basking in the Darkness that surrounded the pillar. Circles of various size surrounded him, each filled with the same silhouette. His own. They were arranged in such a way that it seemed three wings of black energy extended from his back and hips. His face was contorted into a haughty smirk that stretched to his eyes, as if he _truly_ believed he was a god. Worse still, the glowing blue orbs seemed to... follow Jaune as he walked across the surface of the image. "Anyone else creeped out by this?" he wondered as he stopped at the center.

"I can be creeped out when we find the door," Tifa said stubbornly. She crossed her arms and glared down at Sephiroth's face, a sad look appearing on her face. "He looks so much like Cloud."

Yang put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's okay to miss someone you love."

"He's my best friend," Tifa explained, denying her feelings. Yang patted her shoulder. "I... He's like a brother."

"Cute, but we are beyond simple beings like you," Sephiroth said. The group slowly turned to the source of the voice, a man standing at the edge of the pillar, in an effort to keep him from immediately attacking. Jaune noticed with a start that the image ofSephiroth was gone from the stain glass, as if he had clawed his way out to stand in the 'real world.' Dark wings floated at his back, and his blade was held lazily in his off hand. He wasn't concerned about them at all. "Gods have no concern for ants."

"Let Cloud go!" Tifa demanded, throwing her fists up and entering a fighting stance. "Or I'll kill you."

"I _am_ Cloud, and he is Sephiroth. One perfect being," Sephiroth explained, his smirk deepening. "And you are within our Heart. Trespassing. Why?"

"You -"

"He sleeps?" Sephiroth said, cutting in.

Jaune snarled. _He –_

"Knows what is in your Hearts? Turnabout is fair play, after all," the shadowy being mocked. He readied his blade. "Only Cloud could hope to stand against me."

"GIVE HIM BACK!" Tifa snapped again, leaping forward at full speed, fists raised. She lashed out with a massive haymaker, the attack easily avoided by the former SOLDIER. She turned with the momentum to deliver a back kick that he easily caught against the flat of his sword. Sephiroth smirked and flicked his wrist, sending the girl tumbling backwards. "First Aerith, now you. I will finally be rid of any Light corrupting my power."

"Like hell!" Yang snapped, speeding behind him and bring her fist down on his head. Sephiroth turned to the side, spinning and delivering a kick with his heel to send her attack exploding against the recovering Tifa. Then he turned and raised his sword, slashing down to attack Jaune before the Keyblade could gain any momentum.

"I thought this Keyblade was worthy of my attention. But if its users are all like you, then it must be a truly poor judge of character," the villain scoffed. He pushed harder and put his face near Jaune's. "Too weak and foolish to embrace the power within you. I have no desire for such a broken tool."

"Shut up!" Jaune snapped, pushing harder. "You don't know anything!"

"I know that you are not wanted here," Sephiroth said. The world around them shook. "Tell Shinra I'll be there soon. And when I get there, I will tear the blonde in half first. Just to see your face."

Jaune felt ice explode in his veins. "Leave her alone!" he growled, pushing even harder. He fought hard, summoning as much Light to the forefront as he could. A blade exploded into being along his blade, exploding upon contact with Sephiroth's weapon. The explosion expanded, white swallowing everything around them.

And then Jaune bolted to his feet, an explosion rocking the ground of the hospital. "What the Dust!?" he growled, Keyblade coming to his hand of its own accord. He looked around, seeing that Tifa and Yang were similarly worried by the noise they had woken up to.

Unlike him and Yang, however, Tifa looked like she knew exactly what was happening. "Shinra's found us."

Sephiroth's parting taunts flew back into Jaune's mind. "And Sephiroth's on his way," the Keyblade wielder muttered worriedly. "Oh, no..."

Another explosion rocked the building, sending all three of the warriors stumbling into walls and furniture. "We need to get out there and stop this," Yang growled, forcing herself to her feet. She clenched her fists and started for the exit, Jaune and Tifa close behind. "Before they hurt anyone."

When they exited, Jaune barely had time to tackle both girls and raise a Reflect wall, saving all three of them from an explosion of Darkness that vaporized the entrance of the hospital and the ground where they'd been standing. "What the hell are they doing!?" Jaune gasped as he gazed upward. A massive airship was drifting overhead, its cannons firing off the blasts of Darkness that were destroying the city. "Isn't this Shinra's city?"

"They don't care," Tifa growled as she pushed herself up. "We've got to find some way to stop them."

As if n response to her words, the cannons topped firing. "I have a bad feeling this is because they see us," Jaune muttered, fear creeping in to his voice. The airship's front slowly slid open, and tiny flecks of light began to leap out, falling to the ground. Jaune readied his Keyblade while Yang prepared to launch herself at whatever these things were. As they approached, it became quickly clear what this was. Dozens of people dressed in the same uniform Cloud had worn back in Nibelheim, glowing three eyed helmet and gun included. And once they got in range, those guns quickly began to fire bolts of Darkness infused energy at the three on the ground.

"Yang, get them to the ground!" Jaune shouted, bringing the Keyblade around to deflect one bolt that was coming his way. He blinked and grinned inwardly. He just blocked a bullet with his own skill!

The brawler grinned and pointed her fists at the ground. "Took the idea right out of my brain," she said with an evil grin. Then she let loose a pair of massive Firagas, sending her soaring into the sky. She grinned at the surprised and terrified looks she was receiving from the Shinra soldiers before slamming her fist into one look of horror and sending him flying all the way down to the ground, shattering the concrete below with a sickening _crunch_ that said this guy had _definitely_ broken something. Or everything, more likely. She turned as she began to fall, hair glowing and eyes a burning red. "I'm going to give you all a break. Nah... I'm going to give you tons!" Then she fired off another Firaga, the explosion consuming a trio of enemies while also sending her at another group. She raised her robotic hand in front of her, using the weapon on it to deflect blasts coming her way while she prepared to destroy another few enemies with her off hand.

"Get to the ground!" the commander of the forces shouted as another group of his men had their bones turned to dust by a collision with the ground. The jetpacks whined and they began to descend though not fast enough for Yang to not get another few shots in, defeating another few. On one she grabbed hold of the back of his head and used him as an air sled, eventually jumping off when the screaming man slammed into the ground.

Jaune and Tifa, now that the enemy was closer, were finally able to engage. Jaune sprinted towards the Shinra soldiers, dodging and blocking blast with his Keyblade and, thankfully, finding it wasn't impossible to carve out a path for both him and Tifa to reach the enemy. He slid beneath a more concentrated burst of fire while Tifa flipped effortlessly over it, twisting her hips before snapping out her legs to kick two of the enemy across the face and sending them both into the land of sleep. Jaune pushed up to his feet as the energy flew over him. "Aurora!" The buckler on his arm expanded into being as he ran forward, a blade of yellow energy extending past his hand. He brought the weapon around and carved through the gun one soldier was holding, then spun and landed a quick and powerful blow across the woman's face. She fell backwards as Jaune tossed the Keyblade into the enemy, sending them scattering to avoid it. He rushed them, delivering blows with his fists and buckler as he caught up to Yang.

"Finally deciding to fight like the coolest person in the World?" Yang asked as he jumped forward and blocked a blow aimed at her back.

"Oh, good point!" Jaune said, and the Keyblade appeared in his hand. "There, now I'm fighting like the coolest person in the World!"

"You have healthy self esteem," the brawler muttered. She grabbed two of the enemy soldiers and slammed their heads together, knocking them unconscious. Then she spun and threw the both of them into other members of their squad, easily taking out a good chunk of the enemy forces.

Tifa, nearby, landed a massive kick to one man's chest, using him like a bowling ball to send another group flying. "You know, I kind of want to fight her all out. I think I'd win, but it'd be fun," Yang said upon seeing this. "I've been a brawler longer than she's been alive, after all."

"Ixnay on the age-ay!" Jaune hissed as he raised the Keyblade above him, summoning a Thundara that caused many of the surrounding soldiers to shriek in pain before falling unconscious. "Besides, you've only experienced a few real years of it, too."

"Ah, but I fought mind-controlled _you_ ," Yang replied. She backhanded an enemy trying to sneak up behind her, and he fell to the ground. She let her hand fall to her side, then shrugged. "I think I'd have the edge."

"If I say yes, would you _not_ ask her to fight you?" Jaune asked. "Nox." He put both hands on the Keyblade and raised it forward, sending out a burst of ice magic that froze a few enemies in their tracks, giving Tifa ample time to send them flying.

"Hmmm... It's brawl in the air," Yang replied.

"Ugh, a joke that bad could have only come from one person!" Yang, Jaune, and Tifa turned to see a pair of newcomers deactivating their jetpacks and landing softly nearby. Mercury shook his head. "Jeez, we're bumping into you guys way too much. You stalking us or something?"

"Emerald? Mercury?" Jaune asked, confused. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"Um, fighting for the good guys. Duh," Emerald said, gesturing with her thumb at the airship.

"Uh... no you aren't," Tifa retorted.

Mercury rolled his eyes. "Take it from me, terrorism doesn't really endear you to people," he said. He crossed his arms and glanced over at the sash tied tight around Jaune's waist. "Personal experience."

"We tried to explain that to her," Yang said, earning an annoyed growl from Tifa. "Nonetheless, your buddies are destroying the world."

"How?" Emerald asked in disbelief.

Jaune leaned closer. "They're mining the world's Heart. Heartless are appearing everywhere."

"We know, we've been hired to deal with tons of them," Emerald replied. "I -"

"Are you going to attack them?"

Emerald turned on the Shinra soldier who had asked that. Her eyes glowed for a moment, then the man sat down on the ground and began to play with a dog that wasn't there. Emerald turned back to their conversation. "I've had to deal with Heartless we've never seen before, and they get worse the closer to these Cloud and Sephiroth guys that we get."

Tifa palled at her friend's name. "The monsters are following Cloud?" she whispered worriedly. She turned back to the hospital, past the people streaming out of it and screaming. She swallowed, then sprinted towards him.

"Tifa, wait up!" Jaune shouted, sprinting with her and leaving Yang to deal with Emerald and Mercury.

"So... what now?" Yang asked of her... 'acquaintances.'

"Ugh... I can't believe we're going to help you instead of get paid," Mercury growled under his breath. "Dammit..."

Yang broke out into a grin and held her fists out to both of them. "Glad to have you."

Emerald smiled back. "Me too." She hit Yang's left fist with her own.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all good friends. Now, what do we do about _that?_ " Mercury asked, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb. Emerald and Yang followed his gesture all the way up to the ship now powering its weapons up again.

"How difficult would it be to get us in there?" Yang asked.

Emerald raised one eyebrow, then turned and summoned a portal of Darkness. "Not too hard."

"You guys have been using these a lot," Yang stated. She bit her cheek. "You guys need matching jackets." Then she walked right through, appearing within the bridge of the airship.

"What the hell!?"

Yang gave a flirty wave at the three First Class Soldiers glaring at her, hands on their weapons, as Mercury and Emerald came out of the portal to stand on either side of the brawler. "Anybody feel like getting pounded?" she asked. The bridge crew glanced nervously at her before one of the SOLDIERs decided she had enough of Yang's impudence and decided to shut her up. A thin rapier arced towards Yang's head, the white haired SOLDIER woman grunting with exertion as she forced it forward as hard as she could. "Hey... did you steal from Ice Queen?" Yang asked, her hand snapping up to catch the blade. She leaned to the side and grinned at her opponent. Yang let go of the sword, then jumped and slammed her feet into the SOLDIER woman's chest, sending her flying backwards from the dropkick's sheer force. Yang landed on her back, then used her hands to leap back onto her feet. "She wouldn't appreciate that."

The other two SOLDIERs – a man with red hair and another with black - jumped into action as soon as their comrade was sent flying, bringing out their weapons – a scythe and katana respectively – and moving to attack Emerald and Mercury. "Wha –? Are they _trying_ to steal from team RWBY!?" the blonde brawler snapped. She looked around. "And where the hell is _my_ copy cat!?"

"Fight now, complain later!" Mercury snapped, diving to the side to avoid a scythe swing that would have cut him in half.

"Please!" Emerald tacked on, leaping behind her opponent with chains out to coil around her black haired enemy. She landed behind him and pulled them tight, the interlocking chains capturing the man's sword in place so she could easily tear it from his hands.

"Fine. But there will be words!" Yang snapped before sprinting towards the recovering fencer. The white haired woman's eyes widened and she narrowly managed to duck out of the way of Yang's fist rushing towards her head. The SOLDIER rolled across the ground and lifted her rapier in a ready position once she hit her feet again. The rapier bobbed side to side now, constantly looking for Yang's next attack so it could be redirected until, eventually, Yang tired out and the SOLDIER could get the upper hand.

She was severely underestimating Yang.

The brawler dove forward, robotic palm extended to shove the rapier out of her way so she could tackle the SOLDIER to the ground. The rapier clattered uselessly against the wall, Yang's superior strength making the SOLDIER's grasp on the weapon offer so little noticeable resistance that Yang might have had more trouble if she had been fighting been Jaune in the gummi ship instead. Yang landed atop the SOLDIER and raised her fits. "I don't think I'll tell Weiss about you. She'd probably come here and kill you for being a bad copy."

"What the hell do you-?" But the SOLDIER wasn't allowed to finish speaking, because a robotic fist slammed into her face and the world went black.

Nearby, Mercury was succeeding where the white haired SOLDIER had failed. He was zipping around the scythe wielder like a bolt of lightning, easily avoiding the blows of the weapon that, to him, were clumsy. "Come on, Little Red was way better with her farming tool than you!" Mercury taunted, coming to a rest at a corner, arms crossed and leaning against the wall. The SOLDIER snarled and swung around, a horizontal blow to block any exits Mercury could have. The assassin scoffed and jumped, using the wall to flip over the scythe wielder and slam his foot into the SOLDIER's face. The man went down without any further damage. Mercury landed effortlessly and sighed. "That wasn't even a challenge. Em?"

She had torn the sword from her opponent, then conjured an image of spiders all over his body. He had screamed, batting at them until the chains wrapped around his throat, the spiders disappeared, and he was thrown head first into the wall, unconscious. Emerald was standing in the corner, spinning her sickle on its chain and looking bored. "Took you long enough."

Yang laughed, then turned to the bridge crew. "Now... who here is going to land this ship and deactivate its guns?"

The Shinra employees looked at one another nervously. "Let me, Goldilocks," Mercury said, pushing past Yang and causing a wellspring of annoyance to erupt within her.

Emerald scoffed. "Don't worry, I'll beat him up after all this. Or you can," she told the brawler.

"Good. I like it when it's legal," Yang snarled.

"Good people of Shinra's ship. You have two options. One, you land the ship. Or two – I toss you one at a time into whatever reactor powers the guns on this ship." Mercury grinned at the nearest member of the crew, a feral grin on his face. "Your choice."

That got a reaction. The bridge immediately began to become a hive of activity, with crew typing on their stations or beginning to maneuver the ship. The ground beneath them began to shudder and whine as the ship pitched slightly, a sign that Mercury had gotten some pretty good results. "See, it's all in how you say it. And also what. And when. And who to," Mercury said condescendingly.

"Don't make me break your leg again," Yang growled. The assassin gulped and laughed nervously. "Huh, look at that. You were right."

"Ha!" Emerald laughed at her partner. "Ha ha ha ha... ha!"

Mercury glared at her, trying and failing to ignore her laughter. "Yuk it up, _Al,_ " he spat back, the nickname turning her mirth to annoyance.

"Blue is going to pay for that one," the thief growled.

 _Blue..?_ Yang wondered, confused by the name. "Are you guys traveling with a third person?"

Mercury and Emerald traded a glance. "I, uh..."

The ship pitched more heavily to the side, sending the three sliding across the bridge. "What the hell are you doing!?" Mercury snapped at the bridge crew. "Don't make me send you to the cannon!"

"It's not us!" one of the pilots said. As if to support his statement, alarms began to scream and lights flashed red. "We're being attacked, somehow!"

The ship pitched further, forcing Yang to slam her fists through the stone. Emerald looped a chain around Mercury's ankle to hold on to him before he could slide too far away from her, then stabbed her other sickle into the metal to hold the both of them in place. "Then _who!?_ " he snapped at the crew holding on to their stations. The SOLDIERS were all falling, slamming into beams and – luckily – held in place by the steel.

The ship went dark, the alarms silent. Everything was still, for a moment. Then Yang felt weightless. "Oh, this is _bad!_ " she shouted, suddenly reminded of the time she and Jaune had crashed the gummi ship. Except this was a thousand times worse, because they were about to crash a ship about the size of a building. Into a city. That was about the time that the feeling of weight returned, and Yang immediately knew she was falling fast enough to deplete a chuk of her aura. "GET US OUT OF HERE!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Mercury snapped from the end of the wildly thrashing sickle. He swiped his hand and a portal larger than any he'd ever managed suddenly appeared, accompanied by a massive vein in his forehead, profuse sweating, and the feeling that he was about to throw up. He hated caring about people's lives, he thought before blacking out. The portal began to close, but by then it had done its job. Everyone in the bridge had been pulled through, slamming into the street fast enough to break a few bones, but not fast enough to die.

Emerald groaned and pushed herself to her feet. "Merc, could you have made that landing any worse? Merc!" Emerald snapped. She turned to see him, laying face down, unconscious on the ground. She walked over and nudged the unconscious assassin, waiting for a response. He just groaned. "Good, you're alive. Don't know what I'd do if you died."

"Because you love him?" Yang asked, creeping up behind the green haired thief.

"NO!" Emerald snapped.

"Ah, sorry. Because he... runs through your mind all the time?" Yang asked.

"God help me, if you make another stupid joke, I'll -"

"What the hell is that thing?" shouted one of the bridge crew, his frightened shriek filling the air. His finger was pointed past them and up, at something.

Something really big, it turned out. Yang and Emerald turned to where he was pointing, and saw a Heartless. A massive one. Perhaps the biggest one Yang had ever seen. It held in its hands much of the crushed remains of the ship, the rest of the exploded remnants still a deadly rain that burned as it streaked across the sky. It was mostly black and crimson, with four legs and a centaur like figure forming a more humanoid torso with two more arms. Massive claws extended from every limb, glinting with Darkness. Glowing, yellow eyes glared out from its draconian head, which rested above a crystal emblazoned with the isignia of the Heartless at the center of its chest.

Mercury chose this time to wake up, clutching his head. "Ugh, where -" he opened his eyes and fell silent, just staring at the thing. "We're going to have to fight that, aren't we?"

Yang didn't answer. She was too focused on the white haired figure soaring through the air towards the hospital. "Bad news or good news?" she asked without looking at the pair.

Emerald's mouth became a thin line. "Bad?"

"You'll have to fight it alone," Yang said, grimacing.

Mercury snorted. "And I've got a Keyblade." He paused. "Oh, shit, you're serious. Uh... good news?"

"I'm going to be fighting someone much worse."

"How is that good news!?" Mercury snapped, jumping to his feet.

Yang looked over her shoulder at them. "You don't have to fight him." Then she turned and sprinted toa

Emerald and Mercury traded glances, then turned back to Yang in the distance. "Touche," Emerald said with a shrug. She looked up at the monstrous Heartless, now tossing the ship into the island's city. "Uh... thoughts Merc?"

"You and me drinking on a beach."

" _Helpful_ thoughts, Merc."

"Oh... Blue?"

"..."

"Well?"

"... Let's just see how we can do, first."

"You just will not spend your treasure," Merc muttered.

"Sue me," Em retorted. Then she opened a portal to the monster. "Coming?"

"Don't have to ask me twice," Merc replied. Then the two passed through the portal, leaving the incredibly stunned bridge crew to stare at the shrinking portal.

"That's it. I'm quitting. I think the Reactor radiation is getting to me."


	21. Silver Linings

**AN:**

 **Hey guys! Can you believe it? An update that didn't take a month and a half to come out? I've had a little more time right now to do this and have been doing about 1500 words a night for the past week. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Now for some responses:**

 **To Gamelover41592: I had fun writing last chapter, so I'm glad it came off as epic and funny. I hope this one does, too!**

 **To GuestWithIdeas: Well, I'm sorry about Zack and Aerith. Like I said at the start of this story, it's based off of both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts together. The world's main events, like Zack and Aerith, are fixed. The whys and hows maybe not. I have a plan to get Sora and Ruby involved in specific worlds, but that's all I'll say. As for wanting to review earlier, don't worry about it! It means a lot that you left any review!**

 **To G3r1k: I haven't even _played_ FF 7. It's one of those games that was too mature for me when it came out and too old to play now. I'm hoping the remake doesn't disappoint.**

 **To Remnant7: I'm glad you like FFXV. I hope this chapter is as good as the last. I'm sorry about Aerith, but that's the way it goes.**

 **To Guest (Chapter 1): I think I addressed this before. Either with you or someone else. I believe in love at first sight, and I especially believe it's a factor in fairy tale type stories like RWBY. And I'll argue again it wasn't one sided. He clearly showed interest at the very least in Volume three and the end of two. You don't just wear a dress as a guy unless you really care about someone.**

 **To DragoonSensei: Thank you. I thought in this universe it made more sense.**

 **To ssjzohan: Thanks for all your reviews so far. I hope your years away from ff are great and that when you come back this story is as good as you hope it is. When you come back and read this, I hope you have fun binging the rest of Arc of Redemption and, maybe, at least part of a third story.**

 **Quick final note: There's only one more chapter of my Elder Scrolls story left, so if anyone wants to vote on which of my stories will happen next that'll be closing just a couple days after that story finishes up.**

 **Now, enjoy!**

 _ **Chapter 21: Silver Linings**_

"So, how are we supposed to take on something like that... without dying?" Mercury asked, grimacing at the creature's massive size. He glanced over at his partner as they ran. "Any ideas?"

"Since when am I supposed to come up with plans like that!?" Emerald snapped. She rolled her eyes. "Fine, the obvious answer is you use one of your wishes with Blue."

Mercury felt his heart jump into his throat. "Or, uh... you could?"

Emerald scoffed dismissively. "I'm saving them for important things." She waved her partner away.

"Er, like?" Mercury asked, hoping desperately that she wouldn't ask why he was acting so weird. After all, it'd be difficult for him to make a wish if he _had no wishes_.

Fortunately for him, Emerald clammed up the moment the question was asked, her dark cheeks reddening and her eyes darting away from him. "Like... you know, important things."

"Oh, I'm so glad you cleared that up!" Mercury laughed mockingly. He turned his attention back to the monster.

"Shut up and open a portal so we can go for the eyes," Emerald snapped, spinning her sickles from her side and into a ready position.

Mercury grinned. "See, a plan! How hard was that?" he wondered mockingly. He waved his hand and inky blackness appeared in front of them.

"I hate you."

"You love me," Mercury taunted before he jumped through the portal foot first, his heel coated in black flames.

"Please. As if," Emerald muttered. She twirled the sickles one more time, then jumped through the portal, and immediately knew that she hated Mercury. He had opened the portal above the monster, by some distance. Instead of being able to appear at the middle of its plateau like back and climb, or come out on top of its head and jump down, they were falling. Fast. For a long time.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Emerald screamed as she plummeted, trying to figure out the best way to stop her descent and attack this monster.

"Can't hear you! Too much fun!" was Merc's response. Ugh, he could be so damn annoying sometimes.

She extended the chains of her kurasigama, swirling them around her as she came upon a plan. There were massive horns that extended out of the creature's head, like a crown almost in their appearance. If she was lucky, she could use them to swing around the Heartless' and begin slashing at its eyes. She spared a glance at her whooping partner. He just had his leg stuck straight out in front of him, black fire expanding, aimed at the horn growing out of the Heartless' snout. He was going to get impaled, wasn't he?

Huh, why did that make her feel so... cold?

"So, Al, I was planning on ordering out and I -" a puff of blue smoke appeared beside her, holding a Scroll in one hand and a pizza menu in the other. The menu quickly vanished alongside the communication device, replaced by cartoonishly large and long eyes expanding out of the Genie's eyes. "Whoa! I haven't seen something that bad since Sora!"

She lost concentration for a moment. "You know Keyboy?" She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on the monster lest she miss her chance to land. Merc had already collided with the thing, causing Dark flames to coat its head and a massive burst of wind to explode as the force of his kick met its skull. It seemed to do little. She threw her chains forward, flicking her wrists just so in order to get them to wrap around the bus sized horns. Kicking her legs forward, the former thief turned her momentum around the creature's head, swinging like the main character in Merc's new video game. Her boots slammed against the left side of its snout, just below its massive yellow eye, and she retracted her right sickle. Time to be stealthy and go to work.

"Of course I know, Sora. You and I have known him a long time, Al."

The yellow eye of the creature focused on her and the Genie she had just noticed _hadn't_ gone back into his lamp. Emerald groaned and retracted her other kurasigama, then swung it forward around the horn on the creature's nose. She yanked hard and pulled herself up, barely managing to avoid the claw that swiped at her. "You couldn't respond later!?" she snapped at the blue man. "Like maybe when I'm not in danger of dying!?"

"... Then I'd never respond," Genie pointed out simply.

Well, she couldn't argue with that. So, she instead decided to try and do something about this monster. She landed just behind its horn and leveled her guns at its eyes. Black bolts of electricity coursed along the barrels, coating the bullets of Dust that began to fly out with powerful Dark thunder. The Heartless hissed in pain, throwing its head back and sending Emerald flying.

She was caught by Mercury while midair. "What would you do without me?" he asked as they glided through the air.

"Well, I wouldn't have to remind you that we're still _falling_."

"Oh... right. Can you do something about that?"

Emerald laughed and swung her weapons out again, the tips digging into the Heartless' back. "So... I don't think my Dark Thunder did a thing to that monster," Emerald muttered as she pulled them in to safety.

"And I can't get a single hit in that does anything either," Mercury admitted sadly. He put her down on its back and dug in to make sure he wouldn't fall off again.

"And I can't decide between pizza or Chinese for takeout," Genie said, focusing again on a pair of menus in his hands.

Ignoring the Genie, the assassin and thief traded a look. "Well... we gotta try."

"And you should probably deal with that." Genie gestured over his shoulder, where a multitude of Heartless were beginning to form out of the creature's back. He looked back down at the menus. "Hmmm... Pizza."

"Save me a slice!" Mercury demanded before sprinting towards the army of Heartless. He leaped into the nearest Wrath, slamming his knee into the pink fuzzball's face. The monster's head snapped back and it began to grow taller and more threatening. But still just as fat. Merc slammed his feet down behind its knees, kneeling to make himself a table. The former assassin grinned as he realized that Emerald had easily understood what he was going for. The girl had sprinted along the battlefield before delivering a powerful dropkick to the monster's face. The monster's head snapped back again, and its body grew again, just before the momentum tipped it over Merc and turned it into a huge bowling ball. Soldiers and Ronin flew into the air and disappeared in puffs of smoke as the Heartless slammed into them, the damage done to it only making it harder to avoid. Merc surged to his feet and looked over to Em. "Now... will you make a wish?"

"Will you?" Em asked, and she immediately noticed that he looked incredibly anxious. She glanced away from him and flipped over a Soldier, stabbing it in the head as it passed under her. "Merc, you're bad at keeping secrets from me..."

The assassin grinned nervously and glanced at her from under his silver bangs. "Whaaat? No..." He shot his left foot out at head height, an explosive force freezing an incoming Wyvern solid and then shattering it. "I... I don't. I don't have any secrets. From you! None from you! About... anything. Right, Blue?"

The Genie glared at him. _Why are you dragging me into this!?_ After all, it only made it clear that, instead of Mercury hiding something, _they_ were hiding something. That was significantly worse.

"Merc..."

Oh, he hoped this creature would just kill them and get it over with.

When it began to charge a massive fireball on its chest visible even from its back, Mercury began to hope his wish wasn't granted.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Sephiroth rocketed through the sky, the black wings he had grown upon Cloud's fall into unconsciousness carrying him towards his other half. It was only a matter of time, now. Soon he would have complete control over his own Heart, then he would reclaim the Black Materia from the pitiful wreck of a ship that Shinra had tried to create with its power. Then he would be able to wipe this world from existence and find where the Universe was born. And if it was not the birthplace of gods, he would destroy it as well. However often it was required for him to meet his own people.

He gripped Masamune tight in his right hand as soon as he heard the explosion in the distance. It was clearly distinct from the explosives used by Shinra's lackeys, but it remained oddly familiar nonetheless. He threw his sword up and the wings on his back flared, catching the wind and slowing him just enough that his blade caught the source of the explosion on its flat, at which point synthetic fingers wrapped around it. The blonde young woman glared at him, teeth bare in a snarl that just _screamed_ rage. Her eyes were blood red, her hair sparking with flames. She was dressed differently now, from when he had first met her. Her long jacket had been replaced with one of yellow denim. She had a pair of sunglasses perched atop her head. "Yang Xiao Long. I see you are rolling out the welcome mat for your god," Sephiroth snarled back. Flame erupted from her off hand again and she flipped over him. The sword slammed into his face just as she delivered a powerful blow to his back that sent him rocketing to the ground. Cement exploded when he hit the ground, flying all around and hiding everything in a cloud of dust.

" _That!_ " the blonde woman snapped at the crater. " _That_ was for betraying me, you pile of shit!"'

The cement swirling around Sephiroth quickly came to a stop when he exerted the power of the Darkness in his Heart upon it. Black energy caught the particles around him and a circle of clean air appeared around him. He brought Masamune to his right side and glared up at Yang. She was enraged to see that he didn't have a single scratch on him. "Revenge is supposed to hurt," he spat in disgust, as if what she had done was no more an inconvenience than a mosquito bite. His other hand reached down to Masamune's hilt. "Allow me to show you." Then, just before she could hit the ground, he was right next to her. His blade moved like a flash of lightning, barely giving the trained Huntress time to mount a defense.

Without the ground to support her, the force of the blow sent her flying. A building crumbled as she passed through its foundations. Stone, steel, and cement crashed into the ground when she hit the ground on the other side of the building and tumbled to a stop at the foot of the next building. She didn't even have time to breathe before she shoved the ground as hard as she could. She stumbled backwards, using her momentum to roll to her feet and avoid a slash of Sephiroth's sword that would have ended this fight before it could have even began. The attack sliced clean through the street. Yang rushed to attack him before he could pull his sword from the ground, but hesitated when she heard the loud creaking. Sparing a half second to glance at the building to her right, she was stunned as a thin, vertical line appeared in front of Sephiroth. And then, the building split in two. The thinner of the pieces tore from its foundations, tilting without the main body of the building to support it, and crashed into the taller building beside turned her eyes towards Sephiroth. That could have been her. She grit her teeth. No time to worry now.

She rushed forward again, swiping her fists at the ex-SOLDIER as quickly as possible. He moved his head out of the way before she could lay a finger on him, white hair trailing and sliding around her fists. "Stand still!" Yang snapped, bringing her left fist up, cloaked with fire.

He slid backwards, tugging on his sword as hard as he could to bring it up and clash against her fist. The force of the blow was still enough to send him flying backwards, wings trailing in the wind before he slammed through the lobby of a hotel. People screamed and scattered as he pushed himself to his feet,shattered glass and sparking electrical wire all around him. He snarled and looked up just as Yang jumped through the door, grabbing on to the huge crystal chandelier above him. "And this is for Nibelheim!" she tore the chandelier down, its chain snapping from the force she was exerting until the tons of steel, glass, and crystal rained down on her opponent's.

There was a flash just before the chandelier hit, and the light was cut cleanly in two. Masamune glinted above Sephiroth's head, parallel to the two pieces that were tumbling to the ground on either side of him. He lowered it and leaped through the divide, blade slashing again. Yang twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack as she began to fall, the brought her leg around for a kick. Sephiroth nimbly dodged the blow and slammed the base of Masamune's hilt into the center of the woman's forehead. Lights exploded behind Yang's eyes and she hit the ground outside of the hotel, leaving a crater at least a foot deep all around her. "As I said," Sephiroth said, gliding to the edge of the crater. "Revenge is supposed to hurt."

Yang's response was a veritable column of fire erupting out of the crater. She stood at the center, her hair invisible in the flames. Her glowing red eyes were like those of a demon hungry for revenge. "I can make it hurt," she snarled, her aura already translating his blow into force she could put right back on him. "I CAN MAKE IT REALLY HURT!" She shot out of the crater, a fireball of a human being, and slammed her fist into the top of Sephiroth's head before he could respond. The air crackled with lightning for a moment, the result of massive pressure suddenly appearing in a single location, and then the pillar of fire exploded on top of him, a new crater much deeper than Yang's appearing when Sephiroth's face hit the ground. Yang roared and brought both fists down on the prone man's back. "How about this!?" she snapped before bringing them down again. "It hurt this time!?"

Sephiroth vanished in a blur of lines just as her fists flew up again. Yang turned as quickly as she could, but she was knocked back by the swordsman before she could really respond. She rolled across the ground, crashing through streetlights until coming to a stop against a fire hydrant. Water exploded upward, filling the air. She looked up and glared at her opponent, who was at least now looking worse for wear. His hair was singed, blackened at the edges, and his black outfit was in tatters at its edges. There was a bruise blossoming on his face. "Told ya I'd make it hurt," Yang taunted, a shit eating grin plastered across her face.

"You are truly infuriating," Sephiroth snarled, his usually seafoam green eyes now a burning yellow. "I was wrong, you are no insect. You must be my jailer. To keep me here, away from my kind!"

"And you're a delusional psychopath. You're no god," Yang snapped. She laughed. "You want to know what you are? You're an illegal experiment made on another world. On my world. And you're the weaker, worse half of it!"

Sephiroth glared down at her, his chest heaving with hatred. "You're a liar," he finally said after a tense silence. He raised his sword above his head, aiming its nadir at her head. Yang knew this would be it. Her Aura wasn't strong enough to take another blow from a creature like Sephiroth. But at least she'd pissed him off before it all went downhill.

"Sorry, Seph. Lying, cheating, killing, stealing. That's yin. I'm Yang," she retorted. She raised one of her fists toward him, fire glowing weakly between her fingers. "Come on – you could at least laugh at that one. It was a steamy joke!"

The sword rocketed towards her and she slammed her fire coated fist into the ground. Steam exploded all around her and she dove out of the way, avoiding the sword and disappearing into the cloud of vapor she had created. She dove around a corner and began to run. Sephiroth, despite his desire to claim the other half of his Heart, flew after her in a rage. Well, she'd _definitely_ pissed him off, then. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

 _ **R W B Y**_

"Tifa, wait up!" Jaune snapped as he sprinted after the girl, laser blasts and bullet fire colliding with the ground around him. She bolted through the vaporized remains of the hospital's face, her destination pulling at her like a flame drew in a moth. She snarled as she burst through, catching sight of the small bug-like shadows that were starting to appear around her oldest friend. She jumped forward, slamming her foot into one's skull, annihilating it. She turned on her heel and her left foot slammed into another, at which point she ducked and moved to the side, letting one leap clear over her. Her left fist flew up as it passed over her and the Heartless hit the ceiling before disappearing.

"You need to wait up!" Jaune snapped, and she heard another creature burst into shadow behind her. Jaune pulled his weapon up, standing back to back with Tifa, and glared at the Heartless in front of him. "You can't run off alone like that!"

Tifa ignored him, deciding to glare at the three remaining Shadows in front of her. "What if it had been something more dangerous?" Jaune asked, squaring off with another trio himself.

"Then I'd have needed to be here even more," Tifa replied before charging the Heartless. She slammed her fist into one, the leaped up and spun, delivering a back kick to another as it leaped towards her. Finally, she coated her feet with magical energy and brought them down on the third at the same time. It didn't have a chance.

Jaune, meanwhile, had moved forward with the same collected movements that Pyrrha and Sora had taught him, effortlessly bringing his Keyblade around in one hand to cut them down as they came at him. Slash to the left, down, then diagonally up and to the right, and they were gone. Jaune took a deep breath to calm himself as combat ended, then turned to Tifa. "What are you hoping to do here?" He shook his head. "I know you care about Cloud, but rushing in like that and dying wouldn't help him. You need to think and have backup in a warzone."

Tifa, understandably, ignored what he'd said. "You're taking me back in there."

Jaune blinked in confusion. "Uh... you lost me. Where?"

"Cloud's Heart. We have to wake him up before -" she paused as an explosion echoed in the distance.

"Yang..." Jaune muttered.

"Before Sephiroth gets here," Tifa said, putting two and two together about who Yang could be fighting. She turned and walked over to the bed, where Cloud remained catatonic and broken. "He needs to wake up, Jaune. Help me do just that."

Jaune stared at the two for a moment, unsure of what to do. They had _just_ been ejected from Cloud's Heart, after all, and made no headway into waking him up then. Now that Sephiroth knew what they were trying to do, it certainly wouldn't be any easier. Darkness would flood into Cloud's Heart like a river, creating facsimile of Heartless and Dust knows what else to hold them back. _Doesn't matter_ , Jaune heard a voice say in his mind. Not his own. Not Sora. Not Pyrrha, even. It was another voice. _Better to face a problem head on than worry so much about a plan that you forget to face it at all._

Ugh. **Yang**. "Fine. But you stick by me and you do what I say the moment I say it," Jaune demanded, already moving the Keyblade above Cloud again. He grabbed Tifa's wrist and glared her in the eyes. "Well?"

Tifa's eyes narrowed. "I'll do whatever it takes to save him."

Jaune bit his lip. "That's good enough," he sighed before twisting the Keyblade.

They awoke on their feet this time, in a completely different part of Cloud's Heart. They were surrounded by... fragments. Shards of Cloud's psyche broken by everything that had happened to him as of late. A trio stood at the edges of the pillars, staring out into the Darkness. Jaune glanced at the ground and found the stained glass was devoid of anything: no symbol, no face, no silhouette. Just white with a black outline. "I have no idea what we're going to see here," Jaune explained quietly, already confused at the apparent lack of Heartless attacking. He lowered the Keyblade to his side, holding it loose but ready. "We need to be ready for anything Sephiroth sends our way." He paused, thinking about how Cloud's memories were a torrential mess of three different people. "Or Cloud."

"He's not going to cause us trouble," Tifa snapped, moving towards the closest Cloud – this one had no other Cloud to his left. She reached out tentatively, almost terrified by what she was doing. A strange, wistful look appeared on her face, one that Jaune was all too familiar with. "Cloud, I -" Her fingers dragged across his arm, and the world around Jaune and Tifa warped. They found themselves standing on a mountain, staring down at the glittering lights of Nibelheim.

"We're on Mount Nibel," Tifa muttered. She turned around and stared at Jaune. "What's going on?"

"His memories," Jaune explained. He bit his cheek. "An important one, I think."

Tifa walked around, frowning. "It's...The well. We're at the well," she said. She turned and looked up the path, where a well and stones appeared as if from nothing. But there was no Cloud.

Jaune heard a familiar rustling and spun on his heel, raising the Keyblade at the Neoshadows that had slunk out of the Darkness to glare at them. "Tell me more!" he commanded Tifa, then he sprinted at the monsters. The Keyblade slashed down slamming into one of the Neoshadows before it could dodge. The force of the blow sent it flying backwards while the others scattered, chittering angrily as the Keyblade's Light began to call to their darkest instincts. "What is _this_ night?" He jumped behind Tifa and raised the Keyblade, deflecting an attack from one of the Neoshadows that had elected to focus on her instead. The other two shrieked and sprinted at him, forcing the Keyblade wielder to send a blast of ice in their direction, drawing all their attention directly to him.

"It – It's the night that Cloud said he was going to be a SOLDIER," Tifa said. A dim Cloud appeared on the stones by the well.

"And!?" Jaune snapped, deflecting another attack. He rcountered and slammed his Keyblade down on the head of a Neoshadow, caving its head in. Another jumped at his back before he could respond and claws raked across his armor. He turned on a dime and slashed horizontally, batting another away. "What _happened_?"

"Nothing, he just – it was the day before he left! He told me he was leaving to join SOLDIER!" Tifa snapped. A ghost of her appeared beside the ghost of Cloud.

"Why, then!?" Jaune shouted. He lunged forward, skewering a Neoshadow before turning to the last and throwing the Keyblade at the creature. The weapon spun, turning a vibrant gold as Light poured from it, and then turned it to nothing more than a cloud of vanishing Darkness. Jaune took a few breaths to steady himself, then turned to Tifa. "What was he really trying to say?"

Tifa looked at the ground. "I... We weren't friends," she explained sadly. "He was this kid that lived across the street, and...we just didn't talk. I wished we had. I thought he was – So when he met me here, 'on accident' he told me he was leaving the next day. For SOLDIER, to be First Class like his heroes Sephiroth and Zack. He – ha... He said he would always protect me... He just wanted me to notice him."

"Not knowing you already had," Jaune finished, his own memories of Pyrrha aching in his Heart. "I didn't look, either. I missed how she looked at me until it was too late."

Tifa shook her head. "I don't know. Yang is still around, isn't she?"

Jaune turned a bright red. "Ha! Uh, ha... Er, no. No, not Yang," Jaune explained anxiously. "No..."

"Ah, then..." the world around them faded, replaced with a the other two Clouds. Tifa stared at Jaune for a moment, considering the man and his words quietly. She glanced at the ground. "It's changed."

Jaune followed her eyes. She was right. The empty white had been partially replaced, the outermost edge of the pillar stained green with small flowers. Tifa's face fell and her eyes steeled over. "Flowers. Of course it is," she muttered, dejected. She looked over at the next Cloud clockwise. "Of course it is."

Jaune understood what that one meant. These flowers, at the very least to Tifa, signified that Cloud was truly in love with someone else. "We need to keep going," Jaune said after a moment of silence. "We're running out of time." He moved ahead and grabbed the next Cloud.

The world warped again, immediately replaced with a new scene. Nibelheim, fire everywhere. This scene played out in front of them, like a movie. Cloud stood beside Jaune and Yang, cutting down Heartless with the Buster Sword and fighting to protect his home. Specifically the young woman dressed in a cowboy outfit nearby. "So, he doesn't remember what happened," Jaune whispered. Some of the surrounding Heartless turned towards the newcomers and growled, Wraths and Ronin slowly stalking towards them. "Okay, Tifa. What is this scene supposed to be, and why?" Jaune asked, fairly certain he knew how this was going to work. He readied for a fight, as did Tifa, and they sprinted forward.

"Why me?" Tifa asked, lashing out with her leg to turn a Ronin to dust.

 _Because you love him_ , Jaune wanted to retort. Instead he just sighed and attacked the closest Wrath, managing to force it to its maximum height in a single blow. "Just humor me!"

"Fine!" she responded, snapping just as loud. She slammed her fist through a Ronin's head. "That's supposed to be Zack! Cloud didn't do much!"

The scene shifted to match what she had said.

"Great, and now the important part!?" Jaune shouted as he struggled against the two large claws of the fully grown Wrath above him.

Tifa snarled at him from where she was slamming two Ronin's heads together. "What do you want me to say?"

"Why is Cloud showing us this? You know him better than me," Jaune pointed out. He shoved back on the Heartless above him, jumping in the air with his momentum as he spun and carved its head from its shoulders. "Why did he change it?"

She stared sadly at the terrified young man with the gun, fighting monsters he couldn't even hit. His memories had been messed up, but why had he held onto this so much? That he was a First Class SOLDIER who had fought to save Nibelheim. Then it dawned on her. "He felt guilty that he hadn't kept me safe. Like he'd broken his promise."

The world vanished again, replaced with the pillar in Cloud's Heart. The floor had changed once again, another ring forming. This one was a deep, rich brown that was adorned with a demonic wolf's skull clutching a ring in its mouth. Tifa stared at the wolf for a moment, knowing it was Cloud just as the flower was Aerith. They bound his Heart. Tifa shoved the feelings in her Heart down and moved towards the final Cloud.

She was horrified by where they ended up this time. "I... don't know where we are," Jaune said, looking around the massive temple. There were people here already. Cloud and Tifa outside of a green, glowing pool, were screaming in horror and rage. Their weapons were half drawn and they were rushing forward. A few more people were there, as well. A pale man with guns, a large dark skinned man with a... was that a gun for a hand!? A red dog with a mohawk. And more. At the center of the pool was another person that Jaune did not recognize. She had deep brown hair and bright green eyes. She wore a pink dress and red jacket that matched a ribbon in her hair, her hands clasped in front of her as she began to channel Light magic. Jaune felt the Darkness in his heart rear back, as if burned by the mere memory of this woman. He knew why, the same feeling having reared its head when Ruby had run past him with Sora to fight Salem. This is a Princess. Or at least she was.

And she had a huge katana buried in her body, entering at her right shoulder and exiting at her left hip. All courtesy of the silver haired man sneering behind her.

"This is when Cloud broke," Jaune said, putting two and two together.

Tifa nodded. "Not a thing's out of place," she mumbled, her face growing deeply sad. "Aerith... she was great. I'd never had a best 'girl' friend before. It was nice, even if I didn't always like her. After all, Cloud..."

Jaune's brow ticked up. So, this was the woman that Tifa thought Cloud had loved. And maybe he had. Jaune supposed he didn't know. He and Yang had been gone for a very long time, missing too many adventures to know how they had all changed. Princesses of Heart were rare creatures, and the most pure that one could ever find. They inspired love easily, judging from Sora's stories of those he had met. Still, he just _knew_ that there was something more here.

"This was supposedly where we could find a way to lock off the Heart of the World from Shinra and Sephiroth. Aerith said she felt a way she could do it, but then..." Tifa sighed and gestured at the scene before them.

"Then I stopped her." the Sephiroth in the image turned towards the duo, then brutally yanked his blade from Aerith's body. He grinned evilly. "Taking away Cloud's biggest Light from him."

Jaune growled and raised the Keyblade defensively. "Then why haven't you already destroyed him?" he snarled at the white haired swordsman.

Sephiroth's eyes turned on Jaune and he sneered. "You are not part of this conversation, Weakling."

Well, Jaune wasn't going to have that. "Find out what Cloud wants you to see!" Jaune commanded Tifa. "I'll buy you time." He sprinted towards the shade of Sephiroth, Keyblade glowing with a blade of Light.

The Keyblade swung around, the Light extending as it passed by Sephiroth. The shade leaned backwards to avoid the attack, turning with the momentum to swing at Jaune. The Keyblade wielder snapped his weapon around, managing to bring the edge of the Light into contact with Masamune. "So, having fun losing to Yang yet?" Jaune snapped, pushing as hard as he could against Sephiroth.

The man didn't budge, simply standing there with one hand on his weapon. "Even with my attention divided like this, she is about to die," Sephiroth replied. He smiled sickeningly. "And then Tifa."

"Because you're scared of her waking Cloud up, huh?"

Sephiroth's face turned cold, like it was carved from marble. Jaune knew he hit a nerve, especially when the force pushing against him suddenly magnified and sent him flying into the nearest wall. The brown stone shuddered and cracked as he hit it; air flooded from his lungs and the world tunneled around the enraged swordsman. Black wings flashed and the man was suddenly directly in front of Jaune, blade raised beside his head. Jaune forced his feet to move, rolling to the side just as the blade pierced where his head had been. He came up to his feet and slammed the Keyblade into the man's wrist. Sephiroth's hand released the sword's handle and shot up, the man hissing as he was stunned slightly by the pain. "So I was right. You're afraid of her." Jaune grit his teeth and slashed at the man's throat again, only for his opponent to dash away, guarded and in control again. "Tifa! Hurry up!"

"I don't know what to do!" she shouted back, staring at the scene in front of her. "This is when he lost the woman he loved, I don't know what he wants me to see!"

Sephiroth grinned but refrained from speaking. He raised his hands in front of him and a sword of pure Darkness melted into existence in his fists. He vanished, leaving behind not even a flash of black lines. "Oh, this is going to be bad," Jaune muttered. He turned around, raising his Keyblade in an attempt to block, but this played into Sephiroth's hand. The shard of Darkness slammed into his back and knocked him to the ground, causing him to roll until he came to a stop on his back. Eyes shut, Jaune groaned in pain, but he forced them open. Just in time, it seemed, as Sephiroth appeared above him with sword raised, weapon swinging down and sending black arcs of energy crackling in every direction. The Keyblade shot up, catching the attack. The full force traveled through Jaune's body and shattered the stone beneath him, sending another jolt of pain up his spine. He yelled in pain and nearly felt his elbows buckle, but he held on. He had to survive, if not win. "Tifa, I'm going to need you to hurry up!"

"I don't know!" Tifa snapped, she turned to try and help Jaune get rid of Sephiroth.

Jaune shook his head. "NO! Think!" Tifa stopped in her tracks, just staring in disbelief.

"She can't do it. Ants like her, like you... you cannot admit the truth to yourselves, much less others. If it were not accepted, she would fall into Darkness," Sephiroth taunted from above Jaune, leaning against his blade with the full weight of his body and the force of power he could muster, almost enough to break the blonde's guard. Sephiroth leaned down and sniffed Jaune before grinning, a knowing and dark smile. "Just as you did."

"Shut up..!" Jaune snarled, trying to shove the Darkness in his Heart down while he fought to push against Sephiroth as well. If Tifa didn't find out what Cloud wanted her to know, Jaune was going to die. And Tifa. And Cloud. Then Yang. And then this entire world. Then probably a bunch of others until Sephiroth was stopped by Sora or someone else. Jaune blanched. "TIFA!"

"Stop rushing me!" the girl shouted. "I – He misses Aerith? He hates that he couldn't protect her."

Well, not _wrong_ , but obviously not what they were looking for since they were still in this part of Cloud's Heart.

"I don't know what he wants me to say!" Tifa shouted, tears streaming down her face. "I..."

Sephiroth grinned wider and began to laugh. "And with that, my victory is assured."

Jaune knew that Sephiroth was sadly right. If Tifa didn't find out what Cloud wanted her to say... Wait, maybe that was the problem. Jaune cast a quick glance with his eyes at the frozen scene and saw what he'd been missing. Cloud – he'd placed himself between the pool and Tifa. He'd just lost someone he cared about or loved, and he wasn't going to lose her too. Which meant that this was about her, and if she didn't notice that Jaune would have to come up with something else.

Jaune angled the Keyblade and pushed, forcing the blade of Darkness into the ground so he could buy some time. He lashed out with his foot into the side of Sephiroth's knee, landing a solid blow before the man could recover. Jaune scrambled to his feet as the swordsman fell to his knee in a combination of pain and surprise. The Keyblade came down and, now, the earlier blade lock was reversed. But Jaune knew it wouldn't last. "Then tell him what _you_ want him to know!" he snapped. "If I had another chance, that's what I would have done!"

Sephiroth snarled. "Dammit..." he growled, shoving hard against Jaune. The Keyblade wielder stumbled backwards, Keyblade flying up.

"No!" Jaune snapped, forcing his body to slam the Keyblade back down before Sephiroth could get his footing.

Tifa glanced over at the memory of Cloud. "Cloud, I... I wish we'd been better friends as kids, because this has been the best few months of my life. Even if with all the pain and horror we've gone through," she began, moving slowly towards the image of her best friend.

" _Dammit!_ " Sephiroth repeated, shoving hard again. Jaune held firm this time. "I won't let this happen!"

"... and I'm sorry you lost Aerith. I liked her a lot, too. She was one of us. And maybe this isn't the right time, but – heh, Sephiroth is going to kill us anyways. No time if I don't do it now. I know you struggle with Darkness. You fight Sephiroth on the inside all the time, his control, his rage. You told me it feels like you can feel his hate worming its way into you, that you want to kill Shinra instead of bringing them to justice. I bet losing Aerith felt like losing so much of the Light you were trying to hold onto. But..."

"NO!" The blade in Sephritoh's hand vanished and Jaune immediately found all his force flying forward. Sephiroth's wings appeared again and he flew towards Tifa, the Keyblade slamming into his shoulder as he tried to reach her at all costs. Light cleaved through his shoulder, and the world shook. Darkness appeared in his left hand, forming a knife's edge around his straightened fingers, ready to bury it in Tifa's chest. Jaune vainly tried to catch him, to keep Tifa safe.

Tifa reached the memory of Cloud, placing her hand on his cheek. "But I'll be your Light if you need it. I care about you, more than a team mate. More than a friend! I want to see what that could be! So wake up and beat the shit out of Sephiroth so I can? You... you promised." Sephiroth's hand was inches from her back.

The Cloud's face turned to her. "Tifa?"

The world vanished in an explosion of Light.

Jaune sprang to his feet, breathing hard. His heart was pummeling the inside of his chest as it pushed itself to the limits. "Tifa?" Jaune asked. There was no response. "Tifa!"

She exploded upward as well, eyes wide as she reached for her back. "I thought... Sephiroth's fingers, they were right there..."

"And I'll pay him back for that," Cloud said, standing in his clothes beside his hospital bed, one hand on the Buster Sword's handle. He lifted the weapon effortlessly, spinning it in his hand before placing it on his shoulder and turning to the other two. Jaune noted that he looked very different, with a cold edge to his eyes he'd lacked before. The smell of Darkness came off him, but there was Light in it. Cloud flexed his free hand in front of him, then met Tifa's eyes. He didn't smile, but his voice grew somewhat softer and Light shined in his eyes. "After all, I promised, didn't I?"

His face grew a little nervous before he continued speaking to Tifa, cheeks flushing and eyes cast towards the ground. "Before that, though... Did you mean what you said in there? ... I've kind of been waiting for you to say all that since I gave you that flower."

Tifa's face turned bright red.

Yeah, Jaune was fairly certain he knew what face was at the center of that stained glass pillar they'd been standing on earlier.

 _ **R W B Y**_

"Are you... getting anywhere with this!?" Emerald inquired as she took a break from sticking her sickles, enlarged with black flames, into the base of the monster's skull. She was putting a dent in the Heartless, but it wasn't like the pinpricks of damage were going to kill this thing. Probably.

Mercury scoffed and stopped kicking the connection of one wing to the monster's back. "Does it look like it?" he snapped in aggravation.

"Hey, don't yell it me! I'm just checking in!" Emerald snapped back.

"Look, it's not like I'm going to almost die again!" Mercury growled before his face blanched. He hadn't meant to say it like that.

"What does that mean?" Emerald asked, worried. Genie appeared behind her and nodded his head, mouthing that telling her was... a good idea.

But what could he know? He was a blue smoke man who quoted movies from another world. "Like when we fought Salem," he supplied, not sounding nearly as convincing in his lie as a trained assassin should. He turned away before she could say anything more and began slamming the heel of his foot into the Heartless wing again.

"What do you really –?" Emerald began, but she was cut off when the Heartless suddenly turned quickly. A tornado of wind was suddenly swirling around them, sending the girl flying off the creature and to her death.

"EM!" Mercury cried. He grit his teeth and slammed his foot into the wing again, channeling as much magic as he could into an explosive Firaga that he used to rebound right towards Emerald, his arms grabbing onto her.

"Great, and the landing?"

Mercury laughed nervously as they soared towards the other wing. "Uh... I was hoping you had an idea."

Emerald rolled her eyes and swung her sickles out on their chains, looping around the other wing so they could swing down to its back again. As their arc crested, they saw a massive fireball growing on the Heartless' chest, right over the gem. "I bet that's the weak spot," Mercury supplied.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Emerald growled just before the fireball launched from the monster's chest, swirling through the air and right towards... "Is that Jaune?"

The Keyblade wielder's eyes were wide as he stood in the middle of the street, people around him screaming in terror at the fireball rushing towards them. The blonde young man groaned and summoned the Keyblade back to his hand. He... couldn't stop something like that. On the other hand, it was that or thousands around him died. His mind raced, searching desperately for an answer. The fireball grew closer and closer until, finally, he had no idea. Just that he had to try. "I hope I don't die," he muttered to himself and he leaped upward as far as he could, swinging the Keyblade up. His mind was clear, empty, to the point that he was barely noticing as the Keyblade in his hand began to glow a comforting yellow. Then the Keyblade collided with the energy and it bent inward before warping around the tiny edge of the Keyblade and rebounding upward. The fireball, the size of a small building, soared upward until it became like a second sun in the sky... before exploding. The blue of the sky turned red, clouds vanished and were replaced by smoke. And on the ground, a young man was panting with his hands on his knees, a Keyblade buried in the steaming street beside him. He felt red, like he had minor burns all over his body, and could tell that his aura had been driven to the absolute brink by blocking that attack.

Emerald pulled her sickles back and Merc let go, launching a Firaga to slow himself before landing and rolling across the ground until he came up next to Jaune. "Buddy. One sec." Merc turned around and held his arms out, waiting to catch Em. She rolled her eyes and aimed her guns at the ground, coating bullets in Zero Gravity magic that created a bubble that slowed her down and let her land with less force than a one footed hop would have net her. "Show off."

Emerald ignored him and walked towards Jaune. "You don't look like you can save this place from another of those."

"Excellent observation," Jaune said dryly. He pushed himself up. "Have you guys -"

"No," Merc cut in. "If this were a video game, we'd still be on the first health bar."

"Great..." Jaune sighed.

Merc and Em watched him silently for a moment, waiting. Finally, Merc shouted, "So... plan?"

Jaune looked towards the monster, already charging another fireball. "Uh... I'm running on empty. I fought Sephiroth, then this? I can't..." Jaune bit his cheek and looked over at Merc. "What about what you told me about? What Emerald can do."

Em whirled on Mercury. "What's he talking about?" She raised an eyebrow. "What

Merc was pale as snow, eyes darting side to side. Genie appeared again, causing Jaune to yelp in surprise when the large blue figure popped in from out of thin air. "I think that you -" Genie turned on Jaune. "Hey... how'd you get Sora's Keyblade?"

Jaune laughed in excitement. "It _is_ you!"

"What is Mercury talking about!?" Emerald cut in rage that made her voice more fiery than the attack Jaune had just blocked. Everyone immediately shut up.

"The... oh. You didn't – Nothing! I will, uh, think of a pl -"

"TELL ME!" Emerald snapped, sickle suddenly at the Keyblade wielder's throat. "... Now..."

"It's his secret!" Jaune shouted, pointing at Mercury. The sickle was suddenly at the assassin's throat.

" _Thanks,_ " Mercury snapped at Jaune.

"Oh, no, this is on you," Emerald growled. "What happened?"

Mercury bit his tongue before Genie caught his eye, again saying ' _Tell her_."

"Dammit... Em, do you remember the fight against... uh, I think it was Sheeptar?"

Emerald's sickle remained where it was. "Why?"

"What happened?"

"We killed it, some people died, and you started acting weird."

"Because I used my last wishes, Em. I almost died, and you went crazy. Wished me okay, and... You made _real_ Grimm. Not illusions. Monsters. And they killed innocent people. Used to be, you wouldn't care. But now you do. And it hurt you. So I made you forget, and gave you my last wish. And I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to remember."

Emerald glared at him. "I killed people?" she asked, and then the wish's barriers in her Heart shattered. She hit one knee as the memories flooded through her. A bloodied Mercury, the terror at losing the only person she had left. The wave of Darkness that had echoed out from within her, fueled by rage. And... a kiss. As her mind cleared, she looked up at Mercury.

He was shouting at Jaune. "I thought you were _anti_ Darkness!"

"I can't be trusted with it! But _you_ guys seem to be... well, you're being better people!" Jaune replied. "I – look, there's another me who uses it and he wants to annihilate the universe, so..."

"Okay, well, we're going to have to cover _that_ later," Emerald groaned, putting a hand on her temple to try and fight off a headache. God, it was going to be a long day. Her sickles swung into her hands when she lowered them to her hips, and she reached into the depth of her Heart, feeling that same fear of losing Mercury so she could let it fuel her power. But this time she infused it with Light, with the knowledge that Merc was still there. And that they'd kissed. That they could be redeemed. She could worry about all the bad things she now remembered on another day. The sickles in her hands pulsed, then extended out to massive and cruel looking jagged blades. Her blood red eyes turned into a burning yellow. "And we will. But for now, I have some anger to work off."

Mercury gulped. "Uh... try to work it all out?"

She ignored him with a huff and focused her supercharged Semblance, feeling the Darkness crafting what she envisioned. She threw her hands forward, massive chains appearing out of thin air and hooking around the Heartless's arms. They slammed into its chest when Em pulled back, forcing it to stumble forward and into its own charging attack. The Heartless shrieked in pain as a massive explosion slammed into the gem on its chest, making Em sure that she had guessed right on its weak spot. Yanking again, this time she pushed off of the ground and rocketed towards the Heartless, twirling her kurasigama around her body.

The Heartless roared, a massive noise that shattered all the glass immediately surrounding it. Then it flexed as hard as it could, bringing its massive arms up and rearing up on its two hind legs to summon the strength to shatter the chains. It swung at Em, massive claw closing in on her before she could hit it. She snarled and created an illusory wall to jump off of, barely dodging between two fingers of the claw. She twirled in the air, holding her sickles of Darkness out as she did. She felt resistance as her weapons trailed through the appendages, but she got through regardless. The Heartless shrieked again and brought its other claw around, this time managing to land a blow on her guard. There was a massive shockwave as they collided and she was thrown back, air swirling around her.

In her mind's eye, she envisioned another illusion, this time a ramp to redirect her momentum entirely. She hit the slide and went around the curve, losing no speed on the frictionless surface, so she could fly back at the Heartless. "Okay, that hurt!" she snapped as she came up with another thing to use. A Nevermore the size of the Heartless' head grew out of the air, flying towards its face and clawing at its eyes. The Heartless roared in annoyance and began swatting at the Nevermore, but the bird Grimm tore away before coming in for another guerrilla attack. Emerald grinned, wild and aggressive. Oh, this was going to be good. She roared, drawing the Heartless' attention from the Nevermore. The monster roared at her and charged up another fireball in front of its gem, pouring as much energy as it could into making the attack form faster. The Nevermore kept attacking its head, but was ignored. So she decided to do the only thing that would make a difference. The Nevermore angled its wings and divebombed, turning into a comet on a collision course for the fireball. As soon as its sharp, dangerous beak pierced the surface of the magic, the fireball exploded and the Grimm was vaporized. The Heartless roared and reared back, stunned by the force of its own attack.

One of Em's sickles came forward, cleaving through the explosion and letting her swing with the other so she could bury the tip of the weapon directly in the gem. The already cracked surface cracked further under the pressure and buried her weapon to the handle. The Heartless stumbled back, its four legs trampling the destroyed ground "Now," Em said, feeling cocky, if tired. She brought her other sickle up. "DIE!" And she brought it forward, ready to bury it deep in the – and then, the normal sickle clanked off of the monster's chest and she felt her energy vanish.

"Uh... rain check to finish the fight?" she asked, looking up at the Heartless' eyes now locked on her. Its massive maw opened wide in response, Darkness charging some kind of attack. "Or not."

But it seemed she had done enough, for the monster began to fall apart in front of her, its head turning to smoke. "Oh... that's goo -" And then its chest turned to smoke, and she was suddenly falling from the height of a building with little Aura. "Shiiiiiit."

She landed softly in Merc's arms in the air before he kicked at the ground again, creating a Zero Gravity area so he could land safely while Jaune ran up to them. "Damn. That was pretty hot," Mercury said mockingly.

Em glared at him. "Shut up," she said before touching her lips to his. She hit the ground with a thud when his arms stopped working. "What the –? Jerk!"

"I'm sorry!" Mercury shouted, horrified. "I... I just froze up! I swear, this doesn't usually happen, I was surprised!"

 _ **R W B Y**_

Yang was not having fun. That monster was charging a fireball on its chest, Jaune and Tifa were doing God knows what to wake up Cloud, and Yang herself was being chased by the madman with a sword that was maybe capable of annihilating this entire planet. Speaking of, she was forced to duck into another alley as the flying Sephiroth rocketed after her, always gaining if it weren't for his frustration blinding him and Yang acting like a tricky jerk instead of a brawler. She'd gotten this far on a combination of luck and thinking 'what would Blake do?' The result was... well, she hadn't taken any hits, but she also hadn't been able to stop running since this started and she was starting to get tired. "COME OUT, COME OUT, LITTLE MOUSE!"

"Dust, could he be any more cliché?" Yang mumbled under her breath, hoping that someone would help her soon. Speaking of, she had to keep his attention. She looked around for something to use that would distract distract him. She slammed her fist into a trash can, sending it flying into the air coated with a Magnera spell. A black sphere of energy exploded into being when it was in the air. More trash cans and metal debris flew into the air, swirling around to create a wall that both drew the jerk's attention, and gave Yang some breathing room.

And it did give her some, if only a moment. He slammed into the cloud, moving far too fast to completely stop before he hit the swirling orb of metal. Yang loved the noise he made as soon as his already bruised face collided with the metal, like a cross between a yelp of pain and a snarl of rage. "An ant, huh? Fine, Sephi-wrong!" she shouted, laughing at her own bad joke.

Masamune sliced through the metal, the sheer force of the blow shattering the magic holding it all together and sending scraps flying in every direction. He rocketed through, powerful wings beating once to shove the air behind him. Yang bit back a shriek when a projectile made of pure Darkness flew from the sword, slicing through the cement just inches to her left. "What a shot!" she taunted, the only thing that was keeping her from panicking as she was attacked by a maniac. "It's those god-like eyes, right?"

There was a boom, Sephiroth increasing his speed, and he slammed into the ground in front of Yang. She tripped forward, the shockwave taking her feet out from under her, and tumbled to a stop at his feet, her exhaustion and aches finally catching up with her. Still, she pushed herself up and raised her fists, ignoring the fact that his blade was already angled at her neck. "Okay, I'll beat you in a fair fight again!" she growled unconvincingly.

Sephiroth didn't respond, and in fact did something that Yang couldn't understand. He just... looked away, surprise and rage growing on his face. Yang shrugged inwardly, taking what she could get, and put all the magical energy she could muster in her right fist until it was swirling with Light and a tornado of wind that could boost the distance her punch could put between them. Her fist flew forward, just in time for Sephiroth's face to turn back to her. Wind exploded in the alleyway and there was a _boom_ as the force of the attack emtied all air that wasn't slamming into her opponent's face. Sephiroth, even as strong as he was, was sent flying out of the alley and into the street, tumbling through a third story window. Yang kept her fist straight out, forcing air into her lungs when it rocketed back to fill the vacuum. "Dust..." She knew she had to keep fighting, or she'd die. And if he was distracted by something, maybe she could do this. She dragged herself, feet moving slowly, towards the street. "Stupid, silver haired, genocidal maniac..."

Sephiroth was in front of her the moment her foot was about the leave the curb, one of his eyes swollen shut where her fist had collided with it. Blood was leaking out of one nostril and through his gritted teeth. No permanent damage, but damage. Still, his sword was rushing at her, and she wasn't energized enough to block a decapitating blow this fast. _Shit_.

"Hey! Sephiroth, you're looking for me, right?"

The sword stopped just shy of her neck, quivering. Sephiroth's bruised eye widened so much it looked like a normal eye, and his head slowly turned. He lashed out with his elbow as he did and Yang's head snapped back. She hit the ground with a yellow glow all over her skin.

"Cloud..." the silver haired swordsman said, his voice torn between abhorrent rage and awe filled reverence. He raised Masamune to his shoulder. "I am here so we may become one!"

Cloud narrowed his eyes and readied the massive Buster Sword in front of him, knuckles white around the handle.

The two were on each other in a flash, blades singing as their metal collided. Cloud's downward slash collided with the katana, but there was no pause as both combatants were on to their next move. The Buster Sword blocked a decapitating blow from Masamune before sliding along its length to strike across Sephiroth's chest. The man's wings beat and he jumped back, the tip of the massive weapon barely grazing his bare chest. "It truly has been too long since I had a challenge, Cloud," Sephiroth muttered, a wild look in his eyes. "Too long."

"Then how did Yang give you those bruises, Sephiroth?" Cloud mocked. He raised the Buster Sword at an angle in both hands and charged Sephiroth, jumping and spinning for a vertical slash. Sephiroth jumped to the side and swung sideways, but Cloud hit the ground and rolled beneath it until he got to his feet. He spun on the ground, striking with his heel at Sephiroth's ankles and swinging his massive sword with one hand towards where he thought Sephiroth would dodge. The guess paid off, and the Buster Sword slammed into the former SOLDIER's midsection. Blue eyes bulged as the air was torn from his lungs and the edge of the weapon carved through the first layer of his skin before his inner energy stopped the weapon and kept him alive. Still, it was enough to stun him for a moment, giving Cloud ample time to stand up at full speed, angling his head so the hardest part of his skull would slam into his opponent's chin. Sephiroth's head snapped back and Cloud readied to end this, positioning the Buster Sword to pierce Sephiroth's abdomen as it had years before.

"NO!" Sephiroth's wings flared, and a pulse of Darkness flew out of him. Cloud's eyes widened and he turned his stab into a block, the weapon forming a barrier he used to defend himself even as he was sent sliding backwards. His heels dug into the street, forming shallow gashes. Sephritoh snarled at Cloud as soon as they had space. "You... You... You couldn't defeat me if I was at full strength! You bathe in Light, you fear the Dark!"

"Yeah, throw a tantrum that Yang beat you up and made you an easy target," Cloud mocked. He snarled. "After all, you couldn't even take Aerith out without a surprise attack, you damn coward!" Cloud charged him again, swinging with a blade elongated even further by the Light in his Heart.

Sephiroth snarled, and Cloud worried that the silver haired man was going to find some way to destroy him. But the black wings flapped once, and Sephiroth vanished, leaving behind a _boom_ that shattered all the nearby windows. Cloud watched him go, eyes narrowed. And then a sigh of relief escaped him and he fell to one knee. "Ugh... I feel like I haven't eaten in weeks."

Sephiroth meanwhile was rocketing away at full speed, his mind fixated on his goal. Cloud could come after, but this was _now_. Once he had the Black Materia, everything else could fall into place. Besides in the meantime, the Heartless could – his eyes widened as he saw the monster begin to turn to smoke. They found a way to destroy his monster? To defeat a Darkness that strong!? As he saw the smoke rise, he knew the how did not matter. The monster had been a distraction, and it had done its job. He shot through the sky, contrails forming in his wake, aimed directly for the reactor's heart, where his prize waited. He had to claim the Black Materia. And then his own completion would be a simple matter.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Jaune and Yang sat beside each other in a booth, pure exhaustion evident on both their faces. But also a quiet and content triumph. They'd succeeded on this World, saving Cloud and helping to destroy the massive Heartless. After everything they'd gone through, that was more than enough to count as a clear win. Even Emerald and Mercury were willing to sit with them and soak it in. A win as the good guys and a chance to appreciate that feeling with others. Tifa and Cloud were at the counter, talking about the secrets that came out in his Heart and how to catch up with the rest of their party for continuing the hunt for Sephiroth.

"So, you have Sora's Genie friend," Yang said to Emerald and Mercury, frowning. She turned to Jaune and slapped the back of his head. "And you didn't tell me!?"

"Hey! We were busy!" Jaune hissed back, swiping at her hand that was _still_ swatting his head. "You know? OJ, right?"

"Okay, you want to know about Genie?" Emerald asked. She pointed at Jaune. "You guys tell us about who the hell OJ is."

Jaune and Yang grew quiet and morose. Yang stopped slapping her partner and instead put a hand around his shoulder to give him a side hug. "It's not good. He's... like Jaune in a funhouse mirror. The same childhood, the same friends. Except our Jaune is a good boy." She tousled her partner's hair like he was a dog, earning an angry glare from him. "And OJ, the other Jaune... He isn't."

"What do you mean?" Mercury inquired, placing his arm along the back of the booth.

"For starters, he thinks I'm betraying Pyrrha or destroying her memory for trying to move on at all," Jaune started. He shook his head. "Or at least for not trying to help him jump into the next timeline at the cost of every life in this one."

Emerald shook her head in sympathy. "So that means his world must be dead," she said, shaking her head. "I mean, if he got here, then either everyone died around him when he got here, or he tried to destroy his own universe and succeeded. Either way, I know how that feels and I feel bad for him."

"Okay, not the response I expected," Yang said, confused.

Mercury scoffed. "Hey, we were the bad guys once. We're allowed to feel bad for him."

"If he wasn't trying to kill everyone, you mean?" Jaune suggested, putting his cheek on his hand and raising an eyebrow.

The former henchman went quiet for a moment. Emerald finally laughed nervously, getting out,"I mean, who _hasn't_ tried that once?"

Yang raised her hand.

"There you go. Only 25% of people haven't," Mercury joked, earning an annoyed glare from Yang and Jaune while Emerald stifled a laugh. He gestured between himself and Em. "I think we're in the right here."

Jaune and Yang continued to glare until Em and Merc both nervously stopped laughing. "Uh... well, I'm sorry you've been dealing with that." Merc shrugged and gave a smirk. "I guess we'll take him out for you if we see him. Do you a favor."

"No, that's a bad idea," Jaune hissed, throwing his hands out and shaking them. "He's obsessed with Pyrrha, and anyone that's related to her death. So..."

"So he'll try to kill us," Emerald finished. She picked at one of her nails. "I think we can handle that."

"He fought to a standstill with Sora!" Yang said, and both of them immediately froze. "I think you know what that means, right?"

"It's, uh... I guess we could leave him to you guys," Mercury said, suddenly very anxious. "You know, what fun would it be if we got everything done for you?"

Yang glared at him. "Thanks. Really."

Jaune knew that this was as much as he wanted to say on this topic. "Now, about Genie."

"Okay, but there isn't as much to tell as what you guys had," Emerald supplied, more than happy to talk about something else, too. This OJ guy scared her. "You remember when we attacked Blue Fairy, right? We found him there and picked him up when we ran away after the fight with Salem."

"Yeah, he keeps calling her Al and slipping in and out of thinking he's somewhere else. It's been getting clearer, but... he's insane," Mercury explained. He scoffed. "Insane enough that he latched on to us, because he thinks Emerald is someone else. We each had three wishes, and I've used mine."

"That is simpler. I guess. Except Sora said he was free," Yang said, frowning.

Emerald shrugged. "He was like that when we met him. I'm guessing whatever weirdness happened with the, what, second end of the World? Yeah, that must have... rebooted him. Or someone found a way to make him a wish granter again. I don't know. All I know is, it wasn't us stealing his freedom."

Jaune was happy he could honestly believe himself when he said, "I believe you." He frowned. "Now, about your powers..."

"You have an idea about how she got them?" Mercury asked, leaning forward, interested.

Jaune nodded solemnly. "You guys don't wear coats."

Emerald and Mercury glanced at one another in confusion. "Uh, what does fashion have to do with anything?" Mercury asked.

Yang lit up. "OH! I get it!" she said, drawing more attention to the table than anyone wanted. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "So, Sora and Professor Ozpin said something about the Darkness between worlds being bad for you. If you don't get protection, it can get in your Heart. Mess with you. This... whatever it is, Jaune thinks it must be that."

Jaune nodded. "It makes sense. Darkness you can barely control that's _way_ stronger than you used to be? You're getting infected by the Darkness in the Lanes Between, every time you jump between worlds."

Emerald flinched back, worry bright across her face. "Is there any way to stop it?"

"These special black coats. Professor Ozpin knows how to make them, I think," Jaune explained. "We'll get you some. But, uh... we should probably take Genie back, and free him."

""I'd usually agree," someone else said, sliding into the booth with them. Jaune and Yang turned, freezing.

"Blue," Merc sighed without looking at the Genie, "that is the worst disguise I've seen."

The Genie was essentially just himself. But with peach skin. Still just four fingers, no shirt. Proportions that didn't make sense. "You haven't even seen me!" Genie protested. He looked over at Jaune and Yang. "And I want my freedom, but... Al will give it to me. He did it before, and she will now." Jaune frowned. The switching pronouns weren't confusing at all. "They need me."

"You couldn't do it free?" Yang asked, confused.

Genie shrugged. "What I can do with magic when I'm free is a lot more limited than my wishes. One of the rules, sadly. I can do anything for other people... _almost_ anything for myself," the magical being admitted, sounding a bit melancholy. "So if two wishes and my freedom can help save Al and Silver the Hedgehog here... I'm willing to stay with my friends to keep them safe." He turned to Merc and Em. "As long as I get to hang out outside of the lamp more often."

"We never said you had to stay in there. We thought you wanted to since you almost never came out. We only wanted you in there when we had to sneak around."

"Huh..." Genie muttered. His face split into a huge grin, filled with "Well, never going in there unless I need to! Say hello to the me you'll always be seeing! Gene Evans. Gene E. Get it?"

Only Yang laughed at that one.


	22. Adrift

**AN:**

 **Another update within a month? Hey, everybody! I'm happy to be posting another chapter here. Oh, and since there probably won't be a chapter next week: Happy Halloween!**

 **Now, since _Elder Scrolls: Skyrim: Fires of the DragonSouls_ has finished, I have also closed the poll on my profile. The next story that I will start working on is... _Digimon Tamers 0/2_. I'm excited about that one and hope that it can live up to my personal favorite season of Digimon. Also, the darkest. I mean, seeing the D-Reaper and Jeri was horrifying as a kid.**

 **Now, for some responses:**

 **To gamelover41592: I'm glad you liked the conclusion of that part of the FF VII world, and especially the horrible pun I ended it with. I hope you have fun in this chapter!**

 **To cturner971/Chretner: My D &D is going pretty well. I'm getting only 2 or 3 consistent players, but when it's only them things actually happen and are interesting because they really care. They almost died in our last boss fight, actually! Are you changing the combat system at all for the chain of memories type campaign, or items in some way? That sounds like it would be a lot of work. I'm happy you loved the last chapter. I love working on the fight scenes, because I want them to be as fun as possible. Whenever people say that they love them, it makes me super happy because they're so much fun to write!**

 **To G3R1k: Thanks! And I know that he has 1 wing in most appearances, but the design for the last chapters was based off of his KH2 appearance, where he had those two weird hip wings. I wanted to use more of the specifically Kingdom Hearts designs that exist when I can. I input a word or two in his description in chapter 20 to make that more clear.**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and the direction things are going to be heading from here on out.**

 _ **Chapter 22: Adrift**_

"Ugh, I can't believe we aren't going to get paid for all the work we did for Shinra," Mercury grumbled as he and Emerald walked through one of the many empty wastelands in Shinra's territory. "We spend weeks hunting down Cloud and we throw it away to save him and Keyboy. Typical." He sighed. "Not that I'd change that, but... ugh, I just wish we weren't broke in a desert waiting for the Blondes of all people to help us. Remember when we could take them both out? And now we're tied with them at best?"

Emerald didn't answer, not even looking at Mercury. He blinked. "Uh... I mean, I am. You're... crazy strong." That didn't seem to help either. "Look, Em, are you okay?"

"Merc, why did you kiss me?"

He groaned. "Do we have to talk about -"

"Yes," Emerald said firmly, stopping in place and turning to glare at him.

He stopped, too, now silent. She remained silent as well, making it clear it was his turn to speak. So he did. "I kissed you because I knew you wouldn't remember it anyways, Em," he explained with a shrug. "I mean, we've been through a lot. Despite my best efforts, we became friends. And everything that happened with Cinder, and then Xehanort, and betraying Salem. I don't let people get close, Em. Hell, I killed my asshole dad, and that was the most positive relationship I ever had. My mom died in childbirth." He kicked the dirt. "I just mean, I... Everyone close to me, Em, I... I end up killing them."

The thief stared at him for a while. "Merc, you know I -"

"And everyone close to me, too," Jaune Arc said, walking up in a long black coat. His eyes, cold and angry, glanced between the two. His eyes eventually settled on Emerald. "That was some fight you had with that Heartless. Impressive abilities."

"So, you're OJ," Emerald muttered, talking a half step back and slowly moving her hands towards her sickles.

That name caused a flash of anger to run through his eyes. " _Other_ Jaune," he spat in disgust.

Mercury raised his fists and adopted a more balanced stance. "I don't think it does you justice," he joked, though his voice and face were completely even. "How about DJ? _Dark_ Jaune? Ooh! Or TJ? Terrible Jaune? Wait, wait – CJ? Crappy Jaune? Em, give another letter!"

Those didn't help his mood, oddly enough.

There was a flash of energy in OJ's right hand and the mirror image of Jaune's own Keyblade sprung forth as if from nothing. Gold and silver switched with red where blue should have been. The colors, though, were muted. Rusted over and... Dark. "But the Genie... that's the most interesting," he said, an evil smile slowly creeping across his features. "I wouldn't even need the other things if I had him. I could just travel to another universe with a few words."

Mercury acted first, leaping forward and aiming his heel directly at the blonde's head, but the Keyblade appeared in his path almost before he acted. There was a loud clang as the metals met, and the grin on OJ's face grew. "I see Jaune and _Yang_ told you that me leaving will destroy this universe. They're wrong, of course. Yang and the others, they're just filling his head with lies. Making him run from Pyrrha, his _true_ love."

"Do you ever shut up?!" Mercury snapped, pushing as hard as he against OJ, but to no avail. It was like pushing against a building. But Mercury wasn't alone. Emerald appeared behind OJ, sickles raised, and slashed down as fast as she could.

OJ simply sidestepped the attack without looking, moving at just slow enough a speed that her blades nearly skirted along his arm. His sudden movement made Mercury's leg shoot forward, directly into the path of the sickles. Metal slammed into metal and the force of the kick sent the sickles rebounding upward while his foot slammed into Em's face. The thief yelped in pain and stumbled backwards, stunned by the sudden blow before her Aura quickly fixed the minor damage. The assassin grimaced and grabbed her arm. "You okay?"

"Oh, so when I cared for Pyrrha it was like I was a sad puppy. But you have any feelings for one another and it's cute? Romantic!?" OJ snapped, advancing on them with more rage in his eyes. They slowly turned yellow, burning with that hate. Then, he smiled, though the hate remained. "Those powers _were_ interesting. I think Salem was right about having servants: it makes everything much easier."

Mercury felt something rage within him. "YOU DON'T TOUCH HER!" he screamed, his feet exploding with power. Light and Dark swirled at his heels as he sprinted at OJ, faster than the assassin thought he could move. His attacks trailed the energy, leaving ribbons of black and white in the air and sending explosive bolts into he distance that vaporized boulders and cacti. But, even with all that speed and power, it was like he was fighting a ghost that could simply slip past his attacks. They only managed to get him to block when Em joined in, his Keyblade moving around like lightning to take the blow of whoever had managed to get behind him this time. And, of course, he hadn't unleashed a single attack of his own yet.

"It's like fighting Sora," Emerald growled as she and Mercury dropped back after yet another failed attack. They were getting nowhere. "We have to get out of here."

"But the Darkness," Mercury pointed out. He glared at the slowly approaching OJ. "Any more and it might change both of us completely!"

OJ rushed forward, slashing with his Keyblade in a quick series of slashes, the attacks separating Mercury and Emerald before he jumped after the assassin. "And the more you run, the more you'll change," OJ said with a smirk as his Keyblade swirled right next to Mercury's head. A Thunder spell exploded from the weapon as it passed by and Mercury was frozen where he was, paralyzing electricity burning down his spine. "And then I'll have those servants, and I'll be able to send you both out to get what I need if the next universe is not the right one. And then the next. And the next." His hand shot out and wrapped around the assassin's throat. "If the Genie runs out of wishes before I get there, I'll use yours. And once I get there... I'll just kill you." His fingers tightened around Mercury as his arms flailed and clutched at OJ's hand. "Together. Because, unlike you, I'm not cruel." Mercury's struggles grew weaker and weaker, his eyes redder and redder. His vision tunneled. A silvery glow sparked across his skin.

Massive chains shot out of the ground, swirling around like a tornado around the Keyblade wielder. He glanced around for a moment, then casually tossed Mercury away. The assassin rolled and clutched at his throat, gasping and coughing as he was suddenly able to breathe again. "You're right. I'm here for you and your Genie," OJ said to the woman in front of him. Her eyes were bright yellow again, filled with bloody rage and control that was barely there. The sickles in her hands were massive, Darkness swirling along them. OJ took a step towards her, and a chain slammed into the ground where he stood. Another flew upward after him and Mercury realized that, unlike Em apparently, he hadn't seen OJ jump.

The Keyblade wielder threaded himself between links of the imaginary chains, laughing at the battle even as the chains came dangerously close to him. He slammed the Keyblade, teeth first, into one of the chains and turned along it, shooting straight for Em. Another chain shot up from the ground and he raised the Keyblade again, a long blade of Darkness growing out of it, then slammed it into the chain. The metal bent and was thrown out of his path, even as the sickles raised to block his attack. The dull gold of the Keyblade moved straight for the massive Darkness.

And then it passed through, its own Darkness cleaving through Emerald's aura and causing the chains around them to suddenly vanish. The thief was tossed backwards, bouncing and rolling across the desert. Her back slammed into a cactus and she shrieked, her arm slamming against the lamp. Genie exploded out. "Guys, I'm almost done getting everything ready so I can walk with you, okay? I just need to choose my outfit," he said, eyes shut. He opened them. "Do you think -"

"Blue! Ugh.." Emerald groaned and pushed herself up. "I wish he was dead!"

"Rules!" Genie shouted before turning. His eyes literally flew out of his head. "Jaune!?"

"OJ!" Emerald gasped out as she pushed away from the cactus on her knees. "Then... I wish Merc was with Jaune and Yang!"

The assassin's eyes widened and he rasped out, "Em, don't -" The Genie's fingers snapped and Mercury vanished just as OJ tossed a Thundaga spell at the assassin.

OJ was on top of her now, and his Keyblade slammed into her chest. She felt something inside of her roll and she screamed in pain. "I wish we were gone!"

Genie snapped his fingers, and nothing happened. "I... I can't!" he shouted in surprise. He looked at the Keyblade. "He made it so you can't leave!"

"Just like Salem did to Cinder," OJ said, grinning evilly. He raised the Keyblade again, tip swirling with a sphere of Darkness. "Isn't that some _adorable_ symmetry?"

Em snarled up at him, desperately trying to figure a way out of this. She shouted the words before she could get much further: "Genie... I wish you were free!"

Genie's eyes widened and OJ's blue eyes turned a burning yellow. "NO!" he screamed, abandoning his attack and lunging for the lamp to try and get a single wish in. It was too late, however, as the lamp vanished before his fingers could even touch it. He whirled on the genie as the blue man's bracelets vanished in puffs of blue smoke. The Genie's eyes met Emerald's and he reached out to save her. The Keyblade met him instead and he vanished.

OJ turned towards Emerald, the yellow still burning. "That... was a very bad idea," he growled, the Darkness appearing around his Keyblade once again. "Now... I think you'll outlast him for some time."

Emerald narrowed her eyes and slowly let a smirk come across her face. She laughed once, then said, "You know what, at least if you win, I'll get to see Cereal Box's face when she sees what you did in her name." She smirked as cruelly as she could manage. "She'll hate you."

The Keyblade was in her chest as soon as she finished her sentence.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Jaune and Yang were at the almost finished Keyblade Academy, parked on the roof after a night of rest. While home on Remnant, they had asked Sora and Professor Ozpin for a pair of the Black Coats and had told Sora about Genie, Cloud, and Tifa. The young Keyblade Master was ecstatic, now knowing that he could soon see old friends he'd lost so long ago. Even if not everyone totally remembered him, he was happy to at least have something. And making those friends again excited him almost as much

Jaune sighed and leaned against the Gummi Ship, rubbing his eyes. "Is it weird I'm still so tired?" he asked groggily.

Yang's head was already against the ship, eyes shut. "Only if it's weird that I am." She turned her head towards him and opened her eyes. "I think my Aura is still depleted."

"Right!?" Jaune shouted, commiserating. He turned his head towards hers, chuckling at the matching purple circles around their eyes. "Could we give it another day?"

Yang groaned. "God, I wish." She forced herself to stand up and wobbled as her vision tunneled. "But OJ... he won't be resting."

"You had to remind me," Jaune grumbled through a yawn. He slowly slid up to his feet. "I'll drive, you can nap..."

"Thanks. That's nice of you," Yang said, then her brow furrowed. "Wait a second – you just don't want me to drive!"

"It can be both," Jaune muttered honestly.

"Of course it can," Sora said as he bounded out of a door on the other end of the temple's roof. He grinned and laced his fingers behind his head. "Hey, guys! Have a good night?"

The two glared at him. "You really are just _that_ energetic," Yang growled.

"From the moment he wakes up," Jaune said. "When we traveled together, Ren would always wake him up first. He was the easiest one to wake up, and then he made all of us wake up just by being so... Sora."

"Aw, thanks, buddy!"

"Yes, Mister Nomura does have a tendency to be happy no matter the time of day," Professor Ozpin said as he walked out after the Keyblade Master, a pair of Black Coats folded over his left arm. "But if no one wakes him, he has a tendency to _remain_ asleep."

"Jeez, you sound like Riku," Sora said, jokingly indignant. "You sleep for one year, and suddenly everyone panics whenever you take a nap!"

"Yes, well, at least you've started to wake yourself up on time," Ozpin grumbled, slightly annoyed with the younger man. He turned his attention back to Yang and Jaune, nodding at each of them in turn. "Miss Xiao Long, Mister Arc."

"Professor." Yang offered a lazy, two fingered salute.

"Hello Professor," Jaune supplied.

Said Professor patted the coats on his arm with his other hand. "Now, I would like to know exactly what you are planning to use these for. You two were not very forthcoming with that information yesterday."

"Oh, uh... well, we're planning on giving them to Mercury and Emerald," Jaune explained. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Yang nodded. "They've been traveling between worlds without them."

Sora frowned. "That's dangerous. Xehanort did that before he really _became_ Xehanort," Sora supplied, placing a hand on his chin. "I don't even know what that could be doing to them."

"In Emerald's case, it's giving her _tons_ of power," Jaune explained. He shook hs head. "She was making _real_ things, not just illusions. Grimm she could control, massive chains, pure Darkness around her weapons the size of a person. She killed a Heartless alone that I couldn't touch."

Yang grimaced and pointed out, "But it isn't exactly easy to control. The first time it happened, she apparently went nuts and people... got hurt." It was... half a lie, Yang knew. But she was almost certain Ozpin wouldn't appreciate Emerald and Mercury's situation if she or Jaune told them that people had _died_ at her hands. They'd probably ask the blondes to track them down and bring them back, and Yang didn't want to fight her friends.

Yang noted silently that if she'd called them her friends just a year ago, she probably would have had a _horrible_ taste in her mouth. Now... well, lying to Sora – her sister's soulmate, if she was being honest – made her feel bad, but she knew that Emerald and Mercury were trying to make up for all the absolutely horrible things they'd done on purpose. It would be a long road, but at least they could do it if they were free. Evidently Jaune agreed, because he had yet to correct her. She was glad they had that kind of trust, now. She reached over and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it tight. "We're worried about them."

Ozpin sighed. "I remain cautiously optimistic of their motives," he said solemnly. He cut in before the smiles on Yang and Jaune's faces could grow. " _Cautious_. They betrayed Salem for vengeance or for themselves. That does not mean they are heroes. But you have known them longer, so that is the opinion I shall trust. They have crimes to pay for – countless murders. But perhaps redemption can come under your watchful eyes. If they come to Remnant, however, they will be arrested."

"Believe me, they know," Jaune supplied with a laugh. "They're avoiding this place like the plague."

"That's good to hear. I think they're trying to change, too!" Sora said, grinning.

And then Mercury fell from the sky, slamming into the dirt between the four.

Sora, Oz, Jaune, and Yang all stared at him for a while, confused. Then Jaune and Yang looked at each other. Sora and Oz met gazes. Jaune and Sora looked at each other. Ozpin glanced at Yang. His eyes turned to Jaune, and Sora's to Yang. Then, all four looked down at the body, face down, smoking, and unconscious on the stone. "Uh... I guess I was wrong?" Jaune supplied with a nervous grin. He and Yang rushed to the ex-assassin's side, rolling him over to get a look at him.

Mercury was delirious, his eyes glancing in every direction. They were dull, too, like there was nothing behind them. His skin was covered in painful red burns, making it clear his Aura was completely depleted. "... Eh... Eh..." What was he trying to say, Jaune wondered. He looked around, wondering -

Jaune looked back up at Yang, asking the same question as Mercury, now. "Where's Emerald?"

They looked back down at the silver haired man just as he fell unconscious. "What the hell happened to him?" Yang asked hollowly.

"Em..." Mercury gasped before his eyes slid shut, and his breathing slowly grew more normal. Jaune grit his teeth and the Keyblade appeared, summoning an explosive burst of green energy that caused a silver glow to grow across the unconscious man's body. He waited a moment for the ex-assassin to awaken, but nothing happened.

"... He needs a doctor," Ozpin said finally. He turned and handed the coats to Sora before leaning down as well. "Healing magic will help restore his Aura, but he has significant burns that will require additional attention." He gingerly looped his arms beneath the young man's legs and neck and slowly lifted him. "We have a few doctors on staff. Hopefully one of them can help."

"It must have been OJ," Jaune snarled, slamming his fist into the stone. He pushed himself up with his Keyblade. "Dammit, he must have captured Emerald. And Genie?"

"He'd already be gone if he'd captured the Genie," Ozpin explained as he turned and led the group towards the door. "And our Universe would be vaporized between two black holes."

 _Or he was right_ , Jaune thought to himself before immediately banishing the thought. He had to hope someone like OJ didn't have Genie. He would never want to subject even an enemy to slavery like that. "You okay?" He turned to Yang, who had stayed behind with him for a moment.

His eyes fell to the ground. No, he really wasn't. "Yeah," he said, hoarse.

Yang nodded and grabbed his right hand with her real one. She squeezed his hand for a moment, then pulled him after Oz and Sora. "Come on, Merc is going to need us when he wakes up."

Jaune let himself be dragged, taking comfort in the grip on his hand. She was right, of course. He'd just been separated from the person he cared about the most, and that was something Jaune could empathize with. "Yeah, let's go," he agreed, and he began to walk side by side with her.

 _ **R W B Y**_

The universe is mostly Darkness, swirling around the many worlds and their peoples. A vast, deep void of power that separated countless Hearts from connecting with one another. Barely anything could survive among these swirling purples and blacks without powerful protection, either scientific or arcane. One of the few things that could survive a Darkness this complete and suffocating was a creature that had survived a far greater one and moved into the next world. Slowly pulling himself together, a creature of bright blue slowly began to appear. Smoke globbed together into small clouds that drifted closer and closer to one another, themselves forming larger clouds. Slowly, these clouds began to form the shape of a large man, at which point the shape began to grow more defined. A red sash formed around his waist. The blue of his legs grew darker and ended in golden, curling shoes. A black ponytail and pointed goatee curled out of his massive head. And a golden earing flashed into existence on either ear. The one, the only, the Genie of the Lamp took his first 'breath' once again.

He was confused for a while, blinking and terrified by this sudden change in his surroundings. He had never _been_ disoriented before, not really. He always had some conception of what was outside his lamp, and usually behaved and joked in kind. Underwater? Appears like he's showering. In a world of samurai ghosts, show up looking like one. But to have that intuition cut off was paralyzing, debilitating for a being that had never felt that before.

After a while, he was able to force himself back together with a single thought. _Where's Al and Silver?_

The Genie's eyes turned wildly in every direction and he began to snap his fingers, cycling through worlds at lightning speed. First he appeared in a world with a massive wall of ice appeared and he scared a red eyed wolf. Then he was in a world of metal, watching a man in black with a red sword of light and a young man with one of blue battle on a platform. Next he caught a glimpse of young men riding dragons like they were racing bikes. He finally came to a stop on an empty world, surrounded by sands that reminded him of his home from so long ago. "Al," he whispered to himself, worried. He knew that she had likely been captured or harmed by that OJ individual, and that she'd saved him from being indirectly responsible for... infinite destruction. Al had changed so much and so little at the same time. He was glad they could still call each other ' _friend._ '

So he summoned all the energy he could currently summon, and he reached out to find Emerald. He tugged on the connection to her Heart, one that could only exist when both Hearts remained alive. He sent his power along that connection, following it to its source. His mind drifted through the universe, getting closer and closer, stars blurring around him until -

His mind snapped back into his body. He focused inward again, worried this snapback meant the connection had been destroyed by Emerald's death. The connection remained, though, and Genie gave a hefty sigh of relief. He ran his mind across it again, only for it to snap away again. "What the – hm, better get in the right mindset for this," Genie mumbled, his body suddenly changing so he looked like a skinny detective. Another version of him appeared just behind him, a bowler hat on his head. He and... himself paced together for a while until Detective Genie threw his finger in the air. "By jove, Watson, I've got it!"

The two Genies snapped into a single Genie once more, returned to his normal outfit. "That OJ guy must have found a way to block the connection," he shouted. He nodded. "He had a Keyblade, so he has to be powerful."

He scratched his chin. "I know Silver is okay. He's with Jaune and Yang," he told himself. He curled his sharp goatee around his finger. "And he'll probably go as crazy as Al did when he almost died when he finds out." He shook his head. "No, I'm going to give this at least a few more minutes. If I can solve it for him, then there's no reason to involve him."

He conjured a desk to sit at and began to draft up plans, quickly tossing them when he realized they wouldn't work. He leaned back on his stool. "Ugh, just freed and I can't even enjoy it because I'm so worried," the Genie groaned. He rubbed the bridge of his eyes. "Al, come on. Where are you?" He opened one eye, almost expecting his request to be honored, but he was disappointed – not surprised, though – when nothing did. He lowered his hands back to the desk. "Okay, think. You were somehow dispelled by his Keyblade, he's more cuckoo than birds are for cocoa puffs, as wily as a wabbit, and he's cut off your connection to Al. So how do you find Al?"

He waited for himself to respond for a while, then groaned and placed a hand over his eyes again. "All this nearly cosmic power and nothing to do with it," Genie sighed angrily. "Stupid Other Jaune."

His eyes opened beneath his hand. "Jaune. That's it! Jaune!" he said, a wide grin growing across his features. "He'll lead me to OJ, and that'll lead me to Al!" His grin faded. "But... I don't have a strong enough connection to him or Yang. How could I track him?"

Another him appeared across the desk and leaned on it with one elbow. He glared at the prime Genie, just waiting for it to hit him. "What?" prime Genie asked.

The other Genie shook his head and continued glaring at prime Genie. "What!?" Other Genie picked up a picture that hadn't been there before, with Mercury and Emerald standing with Jaune and Yang on Gaia. "Wh – Oh... right! They're _with_ him. Duh. I knew that."

Other Genie rolled his eyes before vanishing.

Genie frowned and turned, staring into the distance. "Huh... I'm worried I lost my mind..." His frown deepened and he reached into his pocket, then grinned and yanked a brain out. "Never mind. Found it." The brain disappeared, as did the desk and chair, when Genie popped up to his feet. "Okay, Silver the Hedgehog. Here I come!" He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, and he vanished from the desert.

 _ **R W B Y**_

When consciousness slowly began to creep back into his mind, it started with an explosion of pain. Fire burned underneath his skin and he felt the remains of a long gone pressure still constricting his throat. He tried to scream in pain, for Em, but the pressure on his throat had torn away his voice so little more than rasping came out. How injured was he? Wait, where was Emerald? He forced his eyes open, finally hearing a beeping noise increasing in rhythm. Light blinded him for a moment, then faded so the world could come into focus. He blinked against it and saw he was in a hospital, a mask pumping oxygen into his nose and mouth. He grimaced against the cold, sterile air and tried to reach up and pull it off, only for his arm to stop short. He glanced down to his wrist, where he was handcuffed to the bed. His other wrist had suffered a similar fate, he discovered when he reached over to break the chain. "Where the hell am I?" he groaned. He channeled energy into his arms and ripped upwards, shattering the handcuffs. A shaky hand came up and pulled the mask from his face.

Mercury, still only half conscious, threw his feet off of the bed and pushed himself to his feet. His legs buckled the moment he hit the ground and he fell to his knees, gasping. He pushed himself, staggering, to his feet, and stumbled towards the door, only stopping when he felt something crash into his back. He turned and saw an iv, pumping something directly into him. He snarled and dazedly yanked the iv from the needle in his hand. The smell of chemicals filled the air, but Mecury was already slamming his hand into the door's handle and trying to open it. After a while, the door slid open, and he came face to face with a guard dressed in white.

The man's eyes widened and he began to pull his gun up to aim at the former assassin, and Mercury's body responded on instinct. His arm came up, moving so much slower than he was used to, and his elbow slammed into the guard's temple while his other arm shoved the gun to the side so he wouldn't get shot. "Urgh!" The guard grunted as the elbow slammed into his head and he stumbled to the side, only for a foot to shakily but quickly rocket towards his head. The guard flipped where he was and landed facedow on the ground, a panting Mercury standing above him.

Mercury groaned and leaned against the wall. "Have to find... Em," he muttered. He shut his eyes, trying to put together what had happened after he'd vanished from the battlefield. Genie, he had to find Genie. He'd know. He wasn't going to think about the possibility OJ had him, though. Not right now. The assassin pushed off of the wall and began to walk down the hallway, bouncing between the walls as he could not walk a straight line at the moment.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be out of your bed!"

Mercury turned around, seeing a dozen guards. Though, given how his vision was blurring it might have been fewer. Probably was. "Son of a bitch," Mercury grunted. He pushed off of the wall and took off, running as fast as his body could take him, then activating his Semblance anyways. The white hallways blurred around him, and he was able to escape from these guards, even though he also managed to slam into the walls every couple of seconds.

Eventually, Mercury burst into a new area, where four massive crystals of blue, white, orange, and green dangled from the ceiling in the shape of a Heart. There was a huge mural on a wall between two staircases leading upward depicting three golden circles forming the shape on Jaune's Keychain. Mercury groaned and turned the other way, seeing a pair of large, wooden double doors with light shining through the windows above them. Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. An exit.

A hammer slammed into the ground in front of him, carrying a girl with orange hair in a pink battle outfit. The girl narrowed her eyes at him and hefted the massive, two handed hammer over her shoulders. "Mercury," she singsonged, anger running through her voice. "Been too long."

Mercury laughed nervously and clenched his fists. "Oh. Hammer. How's Pinky?" There was a whoosh behind him and he turned his head to see that the man himself had landed with little effort behind him. "Oh, good."

"You know, I never got a chance to pay you back for burning Ren way back when," Nora Valkyrie said as she twirled her hammer off of her shoulders and into a two handed grip that hovered over her right shoulder.

"Oh, well... I'm... sorry," Mercury suggested, one eyebrow raised. "But, I need to go. Em's in trouble and -"

"You aren't supposed to leave." Mercury turned only his eyes and head – Ren's weapons were around his throat now. He seemed a little angry, but nothing that had been an issue before the war with Salem. Nothing like when Nora had tried to break his legs after seeing them.

Unfortunately, he couldn't reminisce at the moment. "Look, I need to get out of here, and I'm not going to take no for an answer," Mercury said, and he grabbed the weapons at his throat, throwing them apart, then threw his head back. Ren disengaged, effortlessly dodging the attack while tearing his weapons from the weakened grasp of the former assassin. He twirled and aimed his weapons at Mercury, but the silver haired young man had already activated his Semblance and dodged to the side, barely managing to dodge a Thundaga charged hammer that sent an explosion of lightning out in every direction. The painkillers in Merc's system made him sluggish and inexact, and the magic he easily could have dodged most of the time slammed into him. Every muscle in his body went taut at the same time and he basically leaped to the top of the stairs, slamming intot he railing and tumbling over onto the second floor.

"Sling-sloth!" Nora screamed, and Mercury briefly wondered what the _hell_ that meant in terms of a team up move.

"I am not staying here to be arrested!" Mercury growled, throwing his hand up to grab the railing and pull himself up. He had to think something up – a fight with no weapons against two Huntsman who had teamwork as good as his and Em's was a... rough prospect. No plan meant no win. And despite his own instincts, he knew _running away_ was the closest he would get to a win. He wobbled to his feet and was immediately greeted by the sight of Nora throwing her hammer, Ren on top of it, right at him. As the hammer reached its apex, Ren pushed off and flew at Mercury while the hammer was pushed back to its wielder, landing in her outstretched hand. Mercury vaulted over the railing, dodging the Sleep riddled bullets of Ren. Merc hit the ground in front of the mural and staggered, the world going sideways for a moment. It returned to normal just in time for him to catch sight of Nora's hammer slamming into his face, sending him flying into the wall. He felt wood and stone splinter at his back and a bruise blossoming across his face as his Aura, already depleted from healing his wounds at OJ's hands, fizzled out across his form. He groaned and hit the ground, face first. "So much for a plan..."

"Well," Nora began as she walked up to the prone Mercury, "I guess that makes us even."

"I don't think we needed to get even, Nora. We just needed to keep him here," Ren pointed out. He knelt beside the immobile Mercury and handcuffed his arms and placed a magnet spell between his ankles before rolling him over and casting a healing spell. Green light flooded the room and Mercury felt the bruise on his face slowly disappear and the remaining painkillers in his system slowly fade."Are you alright?"

"Not until I know where Em is," the assassin growled at Ren. He narrowed his eyes. "Let me go."

"Sorry, but you _are_ a criminal. You weren't supposed to come back here," Nora pointed out, hammer over her shoulders as she rocked from heel to heel. "Besides, you didn't truly apologize for hurting Ren."

"Ugh... It surprises me, but I _am_ sorry," Mercury told her. He turned his eyes towards Ren. "It, uh... It was too far, I see that now."

Ren looked taken aback, then shook his head and smiled softly. "I suppose Sora, Jaune, and Yang are right about you: you have changed."

Mercury groaned. "Don't remind me," he muttered, slightly missing his days where he didn't have to worry about worrying about what he did. "NOW WILL YOU LET ME GO!?"

"What the heck is going on?" Yang snapped, appearing at the railing above the mural, Jaune not far behind. She turned down to Ren and Nora and laughed. "Wow, you guys took him down even faster than I thought you would!"

"I was drugged!" Mercury protested. "And I have no weapons!" He grit his teeth, knowing his next words would be ignored even while he pulled against his restraints. "Please, _please_ , let me go?"

"Honestly? I can't. We need to talk," Jaune said from beside Yang, who was texting someone on her Scroll. Jaune's arms crossed atop the railing so he could lean against it. He pushed off and the pair walked down the stairs, stopping beside the group. "Nora, did you have to wreck the wall?"

Nora laughed holstered her hammer in its grenade launcher form on her back. "Oh, come on, Silly!"

Ren nodded. "Yes, this was her trying to _not_ wreck the wall," he said, the ghost of a smile on his face.

"Wow, you're joking now. I like the improvement, I'm not going to _Lie_ ," Yang said, raising her eyebrows as only Jaune chuckled.

"And you've corrupted Jaune!" Nora shouted. She jumped between Yang and Jaune, hammer in her hand again. "Back, foul beast!"

"I've just given up on retaining my sense of humor. There's only so long you can be around just Yang before it happens," Jaune said with a shrug. He shook his head, disappointed in himself at this point. "Might as well enjoy it."

"Aw, love you too, Jauney," Yang said, giving his hair a ruffle despite his protests.

"Adorable, but you will you all let me go now?!"

Their heads turned towards Mercury. "Well, do you promise not to leave?" Nora asked. She gestured at the wall. "Keep in mind, lying will lead to that again."

He glared at her. "I need to find Emerald! Let me go, dammit!" He pulled uselessly against his bonds, thrashing violently.

Jaune knelt down and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Careful. When you got here, you were barely breathing. You probably need more time to heal up."

Mercury glared at him. "I can heal when I save Emerald," he retorted.

"What happened?" Jaune asked, calmly unlocking the handcuffs and dispelling the Magnet spell.

"Jaune," Ren cautioned, but he was silenced by the Keyblade wielder's hand coming up to assure him it would be okay.

Mercury stared at the Keyblade wielder with confusion, unsure if he should run away now that he was free. Finally, he decided on not betraying the trust he'd been showed by the blonde, and he simply stood up and massaged his wrists. "We were waiting for you two," Mercury said, eyes hardening as they met Jaune's and Yang's. "It was probably a day or so after you left, we were all alone in the desert. You said it would be bad to wander the Lanes without a Coat, so we couldn't leave. Or run away when OJ showed up."

Jaune and Yang immediately tensed. "So he did come after you," Jaune muttered sadly, fists clenched tight.

Ren placed his hand on his best friend's shoulder.

Jaune took a breath. "What happened?"

Mercury shook his head. "He'd seen what Em had done to that Heartless, how much energy she output," Mercury said, turning away from Jaune. He didn't want to admit it, but all he could see when he looked at the Keyblade wielder right now _was_ OJ. He knew Jaune was 'good' and all, but... He sighed. "So he showed up and started talking about Salem and servants. How we'd be his slaves and he'd send us out to get what he needed, then kill us once he was done." He turned his gaze to Yang instead. "So I attacked him."

Jaune noticed Mercury's gaze avoiding him and felt his Heart fall into his gut. It didn't matter what good he did, did it? He would always be too much like OJ, just a heartbeat away from becoming him. After all, their lives had been the same to a point. They'd both loved Pyrrha, lost Pyrrha, and let Cinder live at her request, right? If OJ could go bad after all that, why couldn't Jaune? The Keyblade wielder sighed. "And then he tore into you," Yang continued, making an educated guess. She put a hand on Merc's shoulder. "It happened to us, too."

"It didn't even matter when Emerald did her thing. He made it look like she'd just tried on a new hat," he said angrily. He glanced at Jaune again. "He had a Keyblade like your if it was backwards."

"That's the Kingdom Key of the Realm of Darkness," Sora said as he and Ozpin entered from the closest hallway. He stopped by Mercury, arms crossed. "Hey, Merc."

Mercury blinked once. "Hi, Keyboy," he muttered, clearly not in the mood for talking with more people. Especially when they were placing themselves between him and the door.

"So he definitely has it, then," Jaune said, more to himself than Sora. The knight's fists clenched at his sides, shaking like he wanted to slam his fist into something. "Was it too much to hope it was destroyed?"

"What has happened was out of our control, Mister Arc. We can only concern ourselves with what we will do," Ozpin explained. He noticed Mercury trying to edge to get a straight line to the door and placed himself in that path. "Mister Black. Not trying to escape, are you?"

"Wonderful Wizard," Mercury responded nervously. He was literally surrounded by people his level or higher on any given day. Not where any well trained assassin wanted to be."Uh... nope."

"Hm... You are lucky that Sora, Mister Arc, and Miss Xiao Long vouched for you, or I would have reported you to General Ironwood," the ancient wizard said, eyes narrowing behind his tinted spectacles. "You have debts to repay to this world."

Mercury bared his teeth in a snarl. "It wasn't my choice to come here!" Mercury snapped, forcing himself to not step towards Ozpin. "Look, _Oz_ , Emerald wished me away when it became obvious we were going to lose. If it were up to me, I'd be thirty worlds away with Em drinking mai tais on a beach!"

"Look, this isn't getting us anywhere," Yang cut in before Ozpin could say more. She looked at Mercury. "Mercury, we want to help you. So don't hoof it out of here without letting us."

Mercury glared into her eyes, then let them soften from steel to his namesake. "Okay." He untensed his legs and ran his hands over his black pants. He bit his cheek and kicked the ground. "What do you need?"

"Well, we don't know," Sora said sheepishly. He put his hands on his hips. "We know what he's going after, so our best bet is just to get it all first."

"That's going to be a lot more difficult if he breaks Em," Mercury snapped harshly, growing more dissatisfied with their answers. "What are your plans to _save Em_?!" He put his finger in Sora's face.

"We stop him, and we find him. If we get just one of those pieces, we'll know exactly where he'll head," Sora explained simply. He pointed his prosthetic's index finger at the ground. "And we can set a trap for him the moment he comes here for it."

"Is that it!?" Mercury snapped, tears streaming from his face. He grabbed Sora by the collar and brought them face to face, pulling Sora just an inch or two up. "That's not _doing_ anything! That's not helping!" Ren, Nora, and Oz all aimed their weapons at him while Jaune and Yang stood stock still, unsure of what to do.

"I know how you feel, Mercury," Sora said, remaining calm despite what was happening. He left his hands to dangle at his side, calm and open. "I hated not being able to find my friends. I hated having to do a thousand things just to get a chance to see them again. But I realized a long time ago that doing that is the only reason that I was able to find them at all." He finally reached up and pried Mercury's fingers off of his collar so he could stand on his own. "It's not doing _nothing_ , Mercury. It's doing whatever we can."

Mercury glared at the younger man. "Well you can do that, I'm going to go be proactive." He raised his hand to open a portal. "And I'd rather risk that Darkness than wait around."

"World three thirty eight... No sign of Silver," Genie said appearing directly in the center of the group on a stool with his eyes closed. Everyone leaped back in surprise. "I need to get better at this tracking thing."

"Blue?"

Genie's eyes flew open and he grinned wide. "Merc! I've been looking all over for you!" he shouted, leaping forward and wrapping his arms around Mercury. "I was a little discombobulated after that piece of work slapped me away."

Sora was silent as he stared at the back of the blue man hugging Mercury right in front of him. "Um... Genie?"

The blue man froze and turned slowly around, eyes wide. "Sora..." He slowly removed one hand from Mercury and looped it over the Keyblade master's shoulders. "I... Jaune said you were alive, but seeing ya... It's like a wish that never got granted."

Sora smiled wide and jumped forward, hugging Genie. "I... I know you guys are sad about Emerald, but... I'm so happy to see you."

Genie smiled. "In spite of that... I'm happy to see you, too," Genie replied, giving a one armed hug back. "Because I know my friends will help Silver get Al back."

The Genie turned to Ren and Nora. "Hi! Name's Genie-Formerly-of-the-Lamp! But you kids can call me by my first name," he said. "Are you Sora's buddies?"

 _ **R W B Y**_

Mercury was fiddling with his new armor as he stood atop the Keyblade temple a few days later, his wounds completely healed and his determination to find Emerald only growing. He was dressed in a short sleeved shirt, silver on the right and black on the left with his winged foot symbol in the opposite color at the back along the diagonal dividing the shirt. Long black gloves with silver armor on the knuckles, hand, forearms, and elbows ended inside the sleeve. He had black track pants with a silver stripe down the side of the right leg and onto his weapon.

Yang crossed her arms as she leaned once more against the ship, frowning at Mercury. At this point, she trusted him, but she wasn't sure how much she liked that Sora and Ozpin had said Merc should travel with them for now. Jaune was having enough trouble with how similar he was to OJ already. Having someone that saw Jaune and fought to hold back his own hate of the Keyblade wielder wasn't going to help.

Speaking of the blonde moron, Yang had no idea where he was. He had said he had an errand to do before they left and had run off without another word. That had been hours ago, and she wasn't a fan of waiting for people. "Jaune, if you don't come back soon I'm going to personally turn you into a pretzel," she growled under her breath.

"He'll be back soon, Yang," Sora said in an effort to calm her. He walked up with his hands up, trying to look nonthreatening and placating. "Don't worry, he's just doing something he and I needed done!"

"First you spend too much alone time with my sister, and now you're sending my partner out without my permission?" Yang growled. Her eyes narrowed and she cracked her knuckles.

Sora laughed nervously and took a half step back. "Er, n-no. He should be back any -"

"Hey, guys! Sorry that I'm late!" Jaune shouted, running up the stairs with his Keyblade behind him and a swirling Magnera spell swirling at its end and dragging a large box behind him. He stood beside Sora and put the box down, laughing nervously at Yang. "Er, sorry I was gone so long," he told her as her red eyed glare turned on him. He gestured at the box and shrugged. "It's heavy."

"What's in the box." Yang said, demanding that he tell her. It took everything Jaune had to not break, given how terrifying she could be.

Jaune laughed anxiously. "Um, well, that's a secret," he explained. When Yang's hair began to float upwards and spark with flames, his hand shot out to cut off her enraged words. "For just a little while more, okay?! "

Yang walked over to the box and placed a hand on it. "It will be mine," Yang whispered evilly. Her hand ran up and down the side of the box and she cooed, "My precious..."

Jaune groaned. _It is a birthday present, so yeah_ , he grumbled inwardly. _But could you be less creepy?_

"So, there weren't any problems?" Sora asked the blonde warrior.

"Nah. I even got it half price when I flashed my Keyblade!" Jaune explained, pumping the Kingdom Key in front of him. "I left yours and Ruby's share in the temple."

"Cool!" Sora said, lacing his hands behind his head. He dropped his hand and slapped his forehead. "Right, almost forgot! Almost everything I had on me was destroyed when I fell to Remnant, but not _this!_ " He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small charm. It was a steely circle adorned with a cruel looking wolf's head glaring out across the entire thing. It was connected to a trio of sharp, rectangular links and a latch. "When you told me about Cloud and Sephiroth, I started seeing if I could find it in any of the things I'd left on the traveling arena when we attacked Salem the first time. I got lucky and found a few of my old Keychains, and I thought this one would be better off with you for now!"

Sora tossed the Keychain over and Jaune caught it clumsily in both hands, Keyblade vanishing to make room. "I – er... Which Keyblade does this belong to?"

Sora grinned. "That would be telling!" he said jokingly. He scratched his cheek. "But it'll help you out with Cloud and Sephiroth, I think."

Jaune glanced down at the item and tightened his fist around it. "Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we get going?" Mercury wondered impatiently, tapping his foot angrily.

Genie appeared out of thin air and leaned against the impatient assassin's shoulder. "It'll be okay, Silver!" Genie placated. "After all, Sora always managed to save the universe even when taking his time. You have to enjoy life when you can, even when you're worried! With Keyblade Wielders, before you know it – bada boom! Everything's on track!"

"Blue, I'll worry whenever I want to," Mercury hissed. He shook his head. "Whatever. I'll be in the ship." He turned to leave, but stopped after a moment and tossed a glance at the Genie. He shook his head, then he jumped up to the cockpit in a fluid leap. He opened the cockpit and jumped in without a glance in Jaune or Yang's direction.

The Keyblade wielder's face fell. Yang walked over to him and threw an arm around his shoulder. "He'll come around," Yang said, more to comfort him than believing it.

"Silver's just missing Al," Genie explained. He leaned back and floated like he was sitting down. He tented his fingers in front of his face to hide his expression. "Which, to be fair, I'm worried about, too."

"We're going to figure it out," Yang assured him. She gestured with her right hand. "After all, OJ keeps chasing after us, too. It's only a matter of time until we run into him and Emerald."

Jaune laughed nervously. "I feel conflicted about that," he muttered. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sure, we can save Emerald. But a madman is trying to kill you guys so he can drive me actually insane."

"Ah, that's not a problem," Sora dismissed. He laughed and pointed at Jaune. "I'd be more worried if they _weren't_ chasing you down, because then you'd have a hard time finding them!"

"Always looking on the 'silver lining,' huh?" Yang asked with air quotes.

Sora shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "It makes things a lot less sour."

"That's a flavor," Jaune cut in.

Sora frowned. "Cower?"

"That's being afraid," Yang pointed out.

"He means dour," Ozpin said to cut off the conversation. The former headmaster ran a hand through his hair. "Genie, what is it you plan to do?"

"Hm..." the blue man grumbled before setting his feet on the ground. "Well, I think... I'll stay with Sora." He turned to the Keyblade Master. "We're old friends that need to catch up."

"Awesome!" Sora shouted, widely grinning. He pumped his fist in the air and began hopping like an excited five year old. "While we're planning how to beat OJ, we can talk about everything we've both missed!"

Genie cocked his head to the side and laughed. "You know, I love Al and Silver, but I missed talking with someone as optimistic as the phenomenal me!"

"Tell me about it. Oz here is _such_ a downer," Sora replied, earning an annoyed glare from the older man.

Ozpin sighed and decided to ignore the laughing pair for Yang and Jaune. "We do not yet have a complete plan, but we are formulating one," he explained over raucous laughter coming from Sora and Genie. "Head to whatever world your Heart leads you to, but return here afterwards."

"We will. And we'll come with one of those items so we can plan a trap," Jaune said resolutely. "OJ won't beat us."

"That's right, Good Boy!" Yang said, clapping him so hard on the back he slammed face first into the box he'd brought. "Whoops!"


	23. Broken Friendships

**AN:**

 **Hey guys, good to be back. Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. Anyone struggle through that Comic-Con registration on Saturday? My family got lucky this year and our whole group of five gets to go.**

 **Anyways, a quick and shameless plug here. In case you didn't know, my Digimon story is up, under the name Digimon Zero Two, because I learned that '/' is not an acceptable character in a title. Should've double checked that.**

 **Now, for responses!**

 **To Gamelover41592: Thank you. Genie definitely had a wild day last chapter, so I think he deserves some time to cool down. Mercury, though... no, no he needs to work some more.**

 **To G3r1k: Glad to clear it up, and thanks for pointing out that it wasn't clear.**

 **To Chretner: Yes, the two that are there every time are great. Last time they played one of them had to use one of the limited 'revive' items he had because he straight up died after a series of bad choices. That was fun. I'm glad you figured out the card system, especially in only two months. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last.**

 **To Remnant7: No problem about not reviewing last chapter. I mean, reviewing at all is already something I'm thankful for. I was excited to write Genie some more, and Sephiroth was a ton of fun, too. I think he's a pretty solid mixture of FFVIII and Kingdom Hearts. I can't wait for the next time he shows up for some carnage.**

 **Anyways, enjoy the chapter, and – in case I miss it for my fellow Americans – Happy Thanksgiving!**

 _ **Chapter 23: Broken Friendships**_

When the light cleared on Zootopia, Jaune and Yang were very ready for all the weirdness that took place on the world. Jaune opened and closed his mouth, quickly getting reacclimated to his too large dog tongue and the barrage of smells that cascaded through the air and almost overwhelmed his mind. Yang used those now familiar muscles to push her ears back down her head and stretched her long feet slowly to avoid randomly using her impressive strength to rocket into the air.

Mercury, on the other hand, was not ready for what happened to him. He was screaming in surprise the moment they landed in the city, screams that quickly turned into laughter as he realized the weird looking animal-people in front of him – a fuzzy golden retriever and fluffy bunny – were Jaune and Yang. The two glanced at each other, briefly remembering when they had first landed on this world and acted the same. "I'm going to tell him," Yang said after a few moments of laughter.

Jaune shrugged. "Shouldn't he have already figured it out?" Jaune wondered, looking around to see they were getting weird glares from the animals passing by.

Yang laughed at that. "We didn't," she pointed out while lifting her Scroll to take a picture of the former assassin. The flash went off and distracted him, immediately causing the laughter to end.

Merc looked down at them. "What?" he growled, the noise coming out mostly like an angry purr, Yang noted. So she simply turned the Scroll around so he could see the picture.

The effect was almost instantaneous, with Mercury shutting up and staring in surprise. Yang thought that Mercury almost looked like Jaune had when he'd first seen his own animal form. Mercury, unlike either of them, was a large animal. A snow leopard, it appeared, with silvery white fur and lack spots all over his lithe body. He raised one hand and flexed his fingers, causing black claws to extend out of his fingertips before he released them and they were hidden once more. He looked down and stretched his legs, drawing attention tot he biggest difference between his form and those of his new team mates: his prosthetics. Jaune had been wondering how they would be affected by the rules of this world, and the answer was apparently quite simple. The weapons had been integrated into the legs, which were silver and clearly visible, as the pants ended just below Mercury's knees now. They were shaped like the legs of a leopard would be, but were very clearly metal. His legs had changed shape despite not being biological.

Mercury reached up to his head, where his hair had disappeared to leave his scalp shaped like an ordinary snow leopard's. His ears swiveled in confusion atop his head when his paw pads ran across them, giving Mercury a pair of sensations he was unused to. He let his arms fall to his side, briefly trying to compute what was happening. "Uh..."

"Yeah, that was about our response, too," Yang explained, annoyed that he got to be a big, cool animal and she had to be a bunny. How was that fair?

The snow leopard ignored her, instead turning his head around as something popped into his head. The ears on top of his head fell backwards and he groaned. Jaune nodded. He'd just noticed his tail. "It's no cottontail, is it," Jaune suggested, earning a laugh from Yang and another groan from Mercury. "The long tails keep hitting your feet. It's kind of annoying." Jaune turned to his own drooping to dangle against the ground. "It's _really_ annoying."

Mercury ignored him, purposefully looking away from Jaune and around the city instead. "So... everyone here is animals?"

Yang glanced around. They were in a part of Zootopia that was, compared to where they had landed last time, very normal. It was a plain city, aside from the animal people walking around and giving them strange looks. "Well, some of it's less normal," Yang supplied.

"And last time it was less cold," Jaune said. At that, even Mercury had to turn to him, gaze questioning just what that meant. Jaune sighed. "It smells like there's an undercurrent of Darkness. If you look close, you can see that the prey animals are only glaring at me and Mercury. Predators only at Yang. I think something happened after we left, Yang. It's like no one here trusts each other."

Mercury sighed, knowing that Jaune was on to something after giving his own glance around them, at the animals giving them space on the sidewalk. "It reminds me a little of Vale after we attacked Beacon. All your teachers glaring at each other, thinking they were the traitor," he admitted. He crossed his arms and looked over to Yang. "What happened here last time?"

"We helped this bunny cop, Judy, and her... criminal informant fox, Nick, find a bunch of kidnapped predatory animals," she responded. She glanced over at Jaune to finish the explanation, hoping it would in some way help the relationship between him and Mercury.

Jaune picked up on that a lot faster than she had been worried. "We found them all locked up by the city's mayor, a lion, with help from the assistant mayor, a sheep. They were all nuts, Darkness had taken over their Hearts and they acted like – well, I'm sure you know -"

"Like animals!" Yang finished when it became clear Jaune was unwilling. It drew even more looks from the surrounding crowd.

"Er... yeah," Jaune said. Mercury hadn't looked at him once the entire time. Jaune sighed, feeling defeated, but he was sure it sounded more like a dog's whimper than he wanted. "We think whatever it is that can awaken the Darkness in someone's Heart is on this – here. Somewhere."

Mercury felt his stomach plummet. "It can wake the Darkness up in someone," he repeated, voice barely more than a whisper. He grabbed his face, not even feeling the claws extend and dig into his Aura. "But... if OJ gets that, he'll be able to control Em in no time!"

Jaune and Yang traded a glance. "Well, that's actually one of the reasons we came here first," Jaune explained after a moment. "If we can get it first, there's a better chance we'll be able to keep him from finding a way to completely control her."

Mercury frowned and finally spoke to Jaune, asking, "But why wouldn't he just do what Salem did to you?"

"Well, it's not the same. People can fight if their Heart is locked away," he explained somberly, drawing on his own horrific experiences. "But it seems as if this thing, whatever it is, can make someone's own Darkness take control." Jaune frowned sadly. "And when that happens, you actually _want_ to do it."

"Which is what happened to you and other you," Mercury said, causing a flash of pain to move across Jaune's face.

"Yeah..." the blonde Keyblade warrior muttered sadly.

Yang snarled. "It's what happened to OJ," she clarified threateningly. Mercury noted it really was not at all intimidating coming from a bunny, what with the buck teeth and twitchy nose. She crossed her arms and glanced between both boys. "Well, we better get moving." A small smile covered her features as she punched Jaune's leg and made him look directly at her. "We should really hop to it."

Jaune smiled back. "That was a _ruff_ one."

Mercury groaned after a moment, finally grasping what Jaune had just done. "Is this what it's going to be the entire time? Bad puns from _both_ of you?" he snapped, aggravated by all the puns flying at him.

Jaune was about to answer, when the cold feeling intensified. His dog ears perked up and his head swiveled. He sniffed the air, causing both of his partners to stare at him in confusion. "Jaune, what –?" Yang began, only for him to sprint past her, running through the crowds and shoving people out of his way without a word.

Mercury glanced down at Yang. "Well, what do we do?" he inquired simply.

Yang slammed her fists together and Ember Celica shot into place. "We find out what has the pupper spooked," she replied, and she took off after Jaune.

Mercury frowned and watched her go. Following Jaune... It worried him how difficult it was to separate OJ from Jaune, even with everything the Keyblade wielder had done with the obvious intention of visibly distancing himself. The shorter hair, the different clothes, the push to fight and move completely different from his doppelganger. But he still saw those yellow eyes burning as fingers tightened around his Aura-less throat, or the evil smirk as the Keyblade and its massive blade of Darkness prepared to cleave through Emerald's chest and begin the process of erasing who she was. Of erasing the woman that, somehow, Mercury cared about. "You coming?" He glanced up at the impatient Yang. He gave a short nod, and took off after her.

Jaune swerved around corners, forcing his Heart to keep the Keyblade from erupting into being while surrounded by the ordinary denizens of this world. It wasn't easy, given the fact that he was getting closer and closer to what he knew was Heartless. He finally got to let go of that will holding back his weapon, and a bright flash exploded in the alley. The Predator Heartless turned from their prey and turned their jaws, drooling with Dark magic, towards him. They growled low and one leaped forward, but Jaune's Keyblade rocketed up to catch its jaws. The Keyblade glowed with warm yellow energy, and the Predator rebounded off of the Keyblade, soaring away with poison magic burning its flesh. Jaune glanced down at the weapon in his hands. "What the –?"

Yang slammed into the ground in front of him, her fists colliding with the top of the head of a Predator that had leaped at Jaune while he'd been distracted. "Focus, Good Boy!" Yang shouted, tossing a glance over her shoulder. She returned her attention to the Predator at her feet and she lashed out to kick it into the air. Her golden furred foot slammed into its jaw and it soared upward, just as Mercury rebounded from wall to wall and delivered a two legged kick to its midsection. The shadowy flesh caved in before it flew off, leaving a trail of smoke behind it as it lost all ability to hold itself together. Mercury landed in between the other Predators, his new feline legs tensing as the claws on his hands came out coated with fire magic. He leaped out, a snarl coming out like the growl of a snow leopard, and crashed into a Predator, the two tumbling a few feet to claw at each other.

Jaune nodded at Yang and ran past her, forcing whatever had happened from his mind, just like when it had happened on Gaia. His Keyblade glowed with a soft Light, burning through the defensive Darkness the Heartless gave off and letting him cleave one of its legs clean off. He turned and attacked one coming at his back, letting loose a Fire spell into its mouth that ignited the Poison spell. The fire continued along to the source of the spell. The inside of the Heartless' skin glowed as it began to burn from the inside out, heat and pressure building in its body until eventually it ruptured completely and vanished, leaving behind only a glowing Heart. Jaune had already returned his attention to the first Heartless, which had regrown its leg and was bouncing from wall to wall of the alley to avoid being attacked, shooting poison at him from far away to whittle him down. He slashed at the projectiles as they came, the Keyblade's aura completely destroying the Dark magic before it could reach him. He turned to dodge as another volley came near him and he fired a Magnet spell. The Heartless scratched at the ground, trying to find purchase, but was soon torn towards the swirling vortex. Jaune raised the Keyblade in both hands over his right shoulder, and swung it like a baseball bat right at the incoming head of the Heartless. There was a flash of dull light, and the Heartless was replaced by a gleaming Heart.

Yang, meanwhile, had used a pair of Fira spells to send her flying towards three Predators digging their claws into the walls and growling at her. Her fist slammed into the wall where the center one had been, her blow narrowly missing as it leaped to the other wall of the alley. The two Heartless on either side of Yang jumped at her, their poison maws crashing into her bracers as she raised them. Without a point of contact dug into the wall, the Heartless were free to bit down harder and aim her back at the ground as they all fell, the third Heartless jumping above them and coating itself with Dark magic that caused it grow an aura of Dark Poison magic that took on a physical form of massive claws on its front paws. Yang snarled and brought her fists together above her, slamming the two Heartless into each other. The force caused a _boom_ to echo in the alley and stunning the two. Yang turned around midair, putting the Heartless between her and the ground and placing her feet on them. She kicked off, rocketing up and towards a wall with another _boom_ as the Heartless almost instantaneously crashed into the ground and vanished, leaving behind nothing but cracks in the cement and smoke floating into the sky. Yang hit the wall to the right of the Heartless coated in magic and immediately rebounded with her rabbit legs, spinning to point them at the Heartless before it could respond, and her entire body ignited with flames – hair glowing and eyes bloody red – and the golden streak passed straight through the Heartless, causing it to vanish.

Mercury was locked in combat with the Heartless he had singled out and the Heartless that Jaune had somehow forced the poison spell to rebound on. He was currently pinned beneath the Heartless, the creature snapping at his face while he narrowly avoided the attacks and slashed at its face with his fiery claws. The Heartless reared back in pain as one of its eyes was gouged out. Mercury snarled and attacked again with his other hand, catching the monster's jaw with his flaming claws. He brought his right hand around to grab the top of the Heartless' mouth and launched a Thunder spell down its throat. The creature roared and exploded above him, leaving Merc alone with the whimpering, poisoned Heartless trying to back away. Mercury put his hands beside his head and used them to jump to his feet. He knelt down into a runner's pose, aimed directly at the Heartless ahead, and grinned. Then the blur of black and silver shot past the Heartless, claws and legs lashing out as he passed. The Heartless shrieked in pain and stumbled away, only for Merc to bounce off the walls and return from behind it with another attack as he took his time in eradicating the final enemy, working out some of his aggression. Finally, on the fifth pass, he leaped towards the Heartless, claws out in front of him as he soared like a rocket. He began to spin midair and coated his claws with Thundaga that sparked and crackled even as he tunneled straight through the Heartless' side.

And once all three finished with their enemies, they turned towards the center of the alley where the Heartless' prey was still lying unconscious. A small, gray rabbit in an open, button up shirt with a white t-shirt beneath it. Blue jeans and a farmers hat that accompanied the smell of a carrot farm. Jaune and Yang glanced at each other and rushed towards this person, leaving a confused Mercury behind. "Judy! Judy, are you okay?" Yang shouted, sliding to a stop on her knees beside the unconscious rabbit. She grabbed Judy by the shoulders and shook lightly while Jaune raised the Keyblade above them and summoned a Cura that washed away the entire group's weariness.

The unconscious bunny's eyelids fluttered until she slowly woke up, groaning at the light hitting her eyes. "Judy, you okay?" Yang asked as she helped the rabbit cop prop up against an alley wall in a sitting position. The brawler took a half step back and put her hands on her hips. "What's going on?"

Judy mumbled and rubbed her eyes, then looked around. "Jaune? Yang?" she grumbled. She shook her head. "Where's your spaceship?"

Mercury looked over at Jaune. "You let her find out?" he asked, disappointed. "Not even Em and I were that dumb."

Jaune tossed him a glare, but stayed focused on Judy. He remained kneeling next to her. "Judy, what happened in Zootopia to make it so cold?" he inquired again. He frowned. "And where's Nick?"

At that, the rabbit's eyes opened wide, alertness returning to her features. "Nick! I've got to find Nick!" she said when it all hit her again. The gray rabbit tried to push herself to her feet, but swayed and fell tiredly to a sitting position again after just a couple seconds.

"Don't push yourself," Mercury cut in, drawing her attention for the first time. "Heartless attacks are draining, and you almost didn't make it at all."

Judy glanced over at Yang and Jaune. "Uh... who's this?"

Mercury growled in annoyance. "I'm Mercury."

"Oh, from... where you come from?" Judy asked, skepticism at what she was asking in her own voice. "He's a friend of yours?"

"Yeah," Jaune said.

"Kind of," Mercury replied at the same time, twisting his hand from side to side in front of him. "Let's go with... allies."

Yang grabbed Mercury by the wrist. "Jaune, you fill her in and make sure she's okay. I'm going to talk to our 'ally' for a second," she said, robotic hand digging into the former assassin's arm. "Come on, Silver." The tiny rabbit basically yanked the much larger snow leopard off of his feet and supplying Judy with an image she was wondering was even possible.

"Ow, let go, Goldilocks!" Mercury hissed, finally yanking his arm out of her hand as they approached the end of the alleyway. He rubbed his wrist and gave her a sidelong glare, his hackles raised like an angry cat's. "What, are you trying to give me an arm to match my legs or something?"

"No, but maybe I should," she hissed back, the angry look not leaving her eyes. Her hair and fur were beginning to spark with flames and her eyes had shifted somewhere between red and lilac. She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder. "I should beat some some sense into you if you want to act like an idiot."

Mercury put one hand to his chest and melodramatically replied, "I have _no_ idea what you are talking about. Impeaching my character like this! You wound me." She turned away and held up his hand in Yang's face. "Good day."

In response, she wrapped her fist around one of his fingers and began to pull it back. A loud cat screech echoed from his mouth and he turned back to Yang. "Oh, so you _do_ want to listen?" she asked, grinning cruelly. The assassin-cat was on his knees now, eyes begging as he glared up – okay, still down, really – at the rabbit. The finger jerked back and Mercury yelped again. "Well? Are you ready? I can't quite put my _finger_ _on it_ when you don't answer!"

"Finefinefine!" Mercury yelped until she finally let go of his hand.

"Good. Now, stop treating Jaune like this," she demanded. She shoved her index finger in the face of the whimpering leopard. "I'm having enough trouble getting Jaune around the fact OJ and him look the same, so I doesn't need you proving all the crazy stuff OJ is saying right!"

"Look, Blondie, I don't know what you're talking about," he retorted, standing up and stuffing his hands in his armpits so she couldn't get at them. He shrugged. "I'm not treating you two any different than I did when we first met."

"Which is pretty different from how you were treating us just a week or two ago," Yang pointed out angrily. "Especially Jaune. You two _are_ friends, you idiot. That means a lot to Jaune."

Mercury remained silent for a few moments. "He's probably done helping the rabbit get patched up. Let's find out what happened," he said, voice even and quiet. Mercury turned and walked towards Jaune and Judy, leaving behind a greatly annoyed Yang to glare at his back. She eventually just huffed in frustration and stomped after him.

"And you're sure you're okay?" Jaune asked, rising to his feet and holding his hand out to help Judy up to her feet. The rabbit took it and was pulled up, no longer wobbling as she stood there.

"Yes, _Mom_ ," Judy said, a sideways grin on her face.

Jaune chuckled and scratched his cheek. "He's just doing what his seven older sisters did every time he scraped his knee," Yang explained, putting on a smile and bounding past Mercury. She poked Jaunes shoulder. "That may not mean much to a bunny with a couple hundred siblings, but his litter was pretty big for where we come from."

"So what happened?" Mercury said, charging in to disrupt the conversation.

Judy glanced up at him, then her eyes hit the ground. "I messed up," she admitted sulkily. She put her hands in her pockets and laughed dryly. "Pretty much the moment you two left, I messed up." She sighed. "There was a press conference, and Mayor Bellwether and Chief Bogo had me answer the questions. Nick tried to coach me through it, but they kept asking questions and getting scared so I – I went with the only answer we even had..."

"That it's their biology," Jaune said, placing one hand over his eyes.

Yang shook her head in disappointment. "Clearly you didn't think that one through," she sighed.

Judy frowned and crossed her arms, hugging herself tight. "No, I didn't, and it's cost everyone everything," she said sullenly. "Prey and Pred have been looking at each other like they're monsters, and the Heartless just keep creating even more chaos." Judy looked back up at them, crying. "Nick left after the conference. He... He hated me." She laughed sadly. "To be honest, I hated me. So I left, too. I went back home to Bunny Burrow to escape my mistake."

Her eyes hardened, filled with new vigor. "And now I figured out the truth!" she said simply. "Someone is behind all of this, and they're using some kind of... extra potent version of a plant. Night Howlers – they're a plant that can cause bouts of insanity. They've found something even stronger and they've been using it on predators all around Zootopia to sow chaos."

"Couldn't resist the farming metaphor-pun, could you?" Yang asked. She gave a thumbs up. "I approve."

"So where are we starting our search, then?" Mercury asked. He gestured around the alley. "Or was your bright idea just look for where there are Heartless and wing it from there?"

Judy glared at him before returning her attention to Jaune and Yang. "I don't like your friend."

"Feeling's mutual, Carrots," Mercury growled, though he immediately regretted it.

Judy's gaze fell to the ground again. "I... I'm sorry. I was being rude," she said after a while.

Mercury sighed. "No, I – I just need to find whatever this thing is. Someone I love is in danger unless we can find it."

Judy looked back up at him. "Then we need Nick. He's got a nose for tracking things down, and I've hit a wall."

"Would you say he's cunning?" Yang inquired, leaning forward.

Jaune leaned forward from the other side. "Like a fox, perhaps?"

"... I'm so sorry," Mercury sighed, covering his eyes with one hand to hide his shame.

"Let's just... get going," Yang muttered, ignoring Jaune and Yang to walk off with Mercury. "So... when did Jaune start with the jokes, too?"

"Ugh... it's been way too long," Mercury groaned in response.

Jaune and Yang traded a look. "I think they're embarrassed of us!" Yang shouted angrily.

Jaune grimaced, looking even more like a nervous dog. " _I'm_ embarrassed of us," he pointed out. He scratched the side of his head, confusion growing. "Wait! How are we going to find Nick!?"

 _ **R W B Y**_

As it turns out, Judy was able to come up with a plan for finding nick that didn't involve running towards random Heartless attacks in an attempt to find the fox. That plan was looking for an entirely different person that they didn't know, a Fennec named... Finnick. To Jaune, Mercury, and Yang this plan sounded like it was half-baked and just as likely to result in hours upon hours of random searching. And yet, Jaune and Yang should have known better. When a Keyblade Wielder was involved in any way shape or form, blind luck was stronger than probability, and they ran into Finnick not long after.

Being Nick's friend and partner in literal crime, it came as little surprise to them that he was doing what he did best – scamming people. He was selling lemonade made of water, food coloring, and sugar while pickpocketing his clientelle. It made Mercury sad, because Emerald and him had done something along those lines before Emerald had decided to steal those stupid keys and get them involved in this whole adventure. Finnick glanced over as his last client left, and he leaned against the stand. "Ah, if it ain't Nicky's cop," Finnick said, his uncharacteristically deep voice tinged with anger. He pointed at her. "So, find any other ways to make things worse, Meter Maid?"

"Okay, I deserved that," Judy said, walking up to lean against the other side of the stand. She gestured at the rest of the group. "This is Jaune, Yang, and Mercury. Jaune and Yang were the -"

"I already know!" Finnick snapped. He looked over at Jaune and Yang, giving them a thumbs up. "Nicky says you two are something else. Lookin' for a job?"

"Er... no, we're kind of already _on_ a job," Jaune explained, almost sure that Finnick wanted them to do something at least immoral if it wasn't outright illegal.

Mercury chimed in from behind, holding one hand up. "How well does it pay?"

"Look, we need to find Nick," Judy said, drawing the angry fennec fox's attention.

He shook his head. "Aw, no, Meter Maid. Nicky's my boy, and he does _not_ want to see you. Therefore, I have no reason to let you see him," he snapped.

Judy glanced down, then up. "What if I paid you?" she asked, pulling out a hundred lien.

Finnick's eyes widened as temptation hit him, then narrowed as he overcame it. "I said Nicky's my boy, so not even money will get me to turn on him," Finnick explained coolly. He shook his head. "I'm insulted you think so little of me, Meter Maid. Let me guess, it's because I'm a fox, the same reason you carried that fox repellant around Nicky?"

Judy sighed and put the money back in her wallet. "You're right, I'm – I'm sorry," she said. She clenched her fist on the stand. "I was wrong, then and now."

"But we need to find Nick," Jaune explained, walking up, too.

Yang nodded and leaned her back on the stand so she and Jaune flanked Judy. "If money isn't enough of a reason to tell us where he is, how about -"

"Torture? No!" Finnick snapped. He leaped on top of the stand and started to brandish his tiny claws at everyone. "Not even under that pain will I rat out my partner! That was the deal we made!"

"Uh... she was just going to ask if you thought the fact that we found out what is actually causing this is a good enough reason," Jaune supplied after the entire street seemed to go silent at that thought.

Finnick stared at Jaune for a while, processing what he'd said. "Oh, uh... I..." He laughed and jumped back behind the stand. "Well, I mean... I knew that."

Mercury stared at the tiny fox. "Yeah. Sure."

Finnick glared back for a minute, then sighed and returned his attention to Judy. "Well, if that's the case, I guess I can take you to Nicky," he sighed. He stood up straight and ran a hand over his long ears. "But... I will take that hundred lien."

Judy sighed and pulled the cash out again, only for Finnick to snatch it away the moment it was in her hand. "Okay, now if you all will just follow me, we can go find Nicky." The tiny fox laughed as he pocketed the cash and then jumped over to the front of the stand, flipping a sign so it said 'Be Back Soon!' and began to walk confidently down the street.

"I like him," Mercury said before following close behind.

"I get the feeling I should say, 'You would,'" Judy muttered dryly before following with Jaune and Yang in tow.

"Not anymore," Jaune said.

At the same time, Yang laughed and stated, "You have no idea."

The foursome followed Finnick for a few minutes, turning once off of the street and out into a park. "He's been living here, uh, 'rent free' ever since his mouse landlord got spooked and kicked him out," Finnick explained, tossing another pointed look at Judy.

"Jeez, it's like looking at you two," Yang muttered in Mercury and Jaune's direction.

Mercury glared over his shoulder at her while Jaune chuckled sadly. "Well, it's true," Yang insisted angrily.

"To be fair, I am kind of responsible," Jaune supplied, glaring a hole in the ground. He pawed at the dirt. "What with OJ and everything..."

"And who _is_ OJ?" Judy asked. The group glanced at her to see one of her massive ears had been pointed at them the entire time. And, so was Finnick's.

"Eavesdroppers," Yang grumbled.

Finnick laughed. "Can't keep secrets around ears this big!" he shouted. "Now, you gonna answer?"

"Let's just say he's like my evil brother," Jaune explained sullenly.

Judy raised an eyebrow. "Your evil brother? What, does he jaywalk and play stupid pranks on people?" she asked mockingly.

"Kidnapping," Mercury supplied.

Yang shook her head. "Murder."

"Attempted genocide," Jaune tacked on.

Judy and Finnick stopped walking and looked at each other, stunned into silence. Finnick laughed nervously and said, "Oh, so when you said _evil_ , you meant..."

"Yeah, _evil_ evil," Mercury finished for her. "Kidnapped my best friend."

"His _girlfriend_ ," Yang taunted in a singsong.

"Why are you mocking him for that?" Jaune inquired. "It makes it worse."

"Oh, uh... It kind of just slipped out," Yang muttered. "After doing it to Ruby or Nora so long, it's almost reflex."

"Uh... huh," Judy and Finnick said simultaneously.

Luckily for their conversation path – or, unluckily for Nick, Mercury supposed – they came across a group of Predators and Shadows attacking the closed up door of a run down barn, screams for help echoing out from within. "NICK!" Judy and Finnick cried out, voiced blending together once again before they rushed ahead.

"Wh- Guys! You don't have weapo -" Jaune froze as Finnick pulled out a gun. "Well... You're still not prepared to fight Heartless!" He summoned the Keyblade and sprinted towards the fight. He jumped between the two animals and a Predator as it turned and leaped towards them, poison flying from its jaws and burning through the ground.

"Time for some more fun!" Yang shouted, tensing her legs and leaping. Pound for pound, her legs had the most _Yang_ for their buck, and she soared into the center of the fight in a few seconds. Yang sighed as her fire coated legs collided with a Shadow's head. Even she had to admit that joke was a bad one, if only because she'd used it a million times. Another Shadow pulled itself out of the ground and leaped at her back, only for her to turn and bring her arm up to block its claws from scratching across her back.

Merc zipped in, a streak of silver, and landed a shotgun kick to the monster's head. It exploded at the force, his foot driving straight through. "Going to say thanks, Blondie?" he asked the brawler as they moved back to back so they could face all the Heartless surrounding them.

"You took down a Shadow, that doesn't make you impressive," Yang snapped. She clenched her fists and readied for another jump. Her ears bobbed towards Jaune. "Talk to me when you can beat a Predator while scared of yourself." Then she leaped forward, fists glowing with fire and a cloud of dust billowing from where she had been standing, coating Merc's back in dirt.

Her fist collided with a Predator's face, the Firaga in her palm exploding and causing the monster's face to cave in completely. The fire burned away the Heartless' body and shot forward, soaring towards a pair of shadows just as they slunk back into the ground, avoiding the attack. Yang snarled and slammed her fists together before charging another Predator. She swiped at its head, only for its claws to come up and swipe her attack away. She spun away as her attack's momentum carried her tiny body and managed to dodge the claw that came down on the ground where she had been. She slammed her foot down and stopped spinning, then raised her hands defensively, catching a pair of poison tipped claws in her weapons before they could carve through her Aura. The Predator leaned forward, a cold snarl coming from the poison-filled maw closing in on her face. Yang pushed back, keeping them at a standstill until the pair of Shadows that had disappeared a few moments earlier decided to materialize behind her. With a grin, Yang stopped pushing against the Predator, then leaned back and kicked it over her and right into the Shadows. Poison magic carved through them and they vanished just before she leaped forward, a flaming rocket, and annihilated the last of the Predators attacking her.

Mercury turned as Shadows rushed at him, letting their wild slashes pass him by so he could claw one in half. The other passed him by before he could attack it as well, then melted into the ground. Mercury kept an eye trained on the shadow slinking across the battlefield while he continued to fight, blocking an incoming Predator with his shin. He kicked at the creature locked onto his leg and it flipped suddenly, just as he jumped with his left leg and brought it around and right into the path of the flipping Heartless. He laughed as his leg easily carved through its flesh, sending the bisected remains spinning away into nothingness. He turned back to the Shadow as it crawled out of the ground, and it froze, almost surprised to have been caught. "Nice try," Mercury said, grinning evilly before lashing out with his heel and making it disappear for real this time. He stood up straight and put his hands in his pockets. "Well, now. Isn't that -"

"Look out!" someone shouted. Mercury yelped as the owner of the voice shoved him out of the way, and a loud clang immediately erupted as Heartless claws slammed into a weapon. Mercury looked up to thank whoever had saved him, and saw Jaune locked in combat with a Neoshadow. The Keyblade wielder narrowed his eyes and broke the lock with a powerful shove that sent the Heartless straight up into the air. Jaune raised the Keyblade over his shoulder, then with a battle roar he sent it flying upward to carve through the Neoshadow as a brilliant circle of Light. The Keyblade flashed back to Jaune's hand a moment later as he placed his off hand on his hip. "There, all done."

Mercury scrambled to his feet, about to say he hadn't needed any help, when the door of the barn slowly opened. "Now, I may not recognize every noise out here, but I _know_ that voice belongs to an overly excited puppy. Jaune, could that be you?" Nicholas Wilde inquired as he peeked out of the door. He grinned and tossed it open. "And Yang! Finnick, aren't they something else?"

"If that's what you want to call this," Finnick trembled as he hid his gun once more. He looked over at Judy. "I got a permit."

She glared at him, completely unsure if that was true, then turned back to Nick. "H-Hi... Nick."

The Fox just glared at her.

Judy sighed. "I guess that I deserve that," Judy muttered sadly. She looked up. "Nick, Night howlers aren't wolves! Someone is using modified versions of a toxic flower. I think someone is targeting predators on purpose and _making_ them go savage."

Nick narrowed his eyes at her and turned around. "Wow. Isn't that interesting," he said in a monotone. "Yang, Jaune. I'll see ya later."

Judy jumped after him. "Wait!" he stopped. She sighed. "Listen, I – I know you'll never forgive me! And I don't blame you. I wouldn't forgive me either. I was ignorant, and... irresponsible... and small-minded. But predators shouldn't suffer because of my mistakes. I have to fix this." She fell to her knees, hands clasped as she begged. "I can't do this without you."

"She has us, why does she need him?" Mercury asked Yang and Jaune under his breath. They wrapped their hands over his mouth to shut him up.

"And... and after we're done, you can hate me, and that'll be fine, because I was a _horrible_ friend. And I hurt you. And you... you can walk away knowing you were right all along," Judy said. Her ears dropped and her eyes glared at the dirt, full of self loathing. Tears and sobs escaped her, and Jaune knew he was going to get really angry if Nick didn't forgive her after all this, because that's jst what friends do. It's what his friends did... huh, it really was, wasn't it? "I really am just a _dumb bunny_."

The entire place was silent. Then, Judy said again, "I really am just a _dumb bunny_."

"Wha?" Judy asked, looking up.

Finnick laughed excitedly and slapped his knee. "He hustled you!" he shouted, pointing at Judy as Nick turned around to reveal a small carrot pen. He pressed a button on the pen and her statement echoed again.

"Don't worry, Carrots. I'll let you erase it," Nick began. He rinned evilly. "I'll let you erase it... in forty-eight hours."

Judy laughed, her tears turning to those of joy as she leaped forward and hugged the fox. Her arms tightened around his midsection. "Nick... Nick I'm so sorry!" she cried.

"I know, I know," Nick said, tapping her head.

Jaune took a step forward. "Uh... what's going on?"

Nick glanced over. "Oh, well... Carrots here used this," he began, shaking the carrot pen above Judy's head, "to blackmail yours truly into helping her. I guess you could say that it's the carrot and the stick that started our friendship." Yang and Jaune laughed at that bad joke, which only caused Nick to grimace. "Guys that was a test. And you like them now, too? Good Boy, come on!"

Finnick growled angrily. "You see, your laughter is even making Finnick angry!" Nick shouted. "I mean, _everything_ makes Finnick angry, but you get my point."

"Uh, I don't think that's what happened," Mercury said, fear in his voice as he pointed towards the Fennec fox. Judy let go of Nick and everyone turned towards Finnick, freezing solid. Finnick was on all fours, his pupils tiny dots of savage rage. His clothes were in tatters, torn to shreds as he pulled at them with sharp teeth. And floating behind him, was a Heartless none of them had ever seen before.

It was a massive blue flower with a shadowy creature coming out from the center and each petal emblazoned with the symbol of the Heartless. Colorfully tipped stalks rose to surround this body, each charged with a different kind of magic. The Heartless' hands were guns, from which a stream of shadows connected it to Finnick, Its yellow eyes glowed brighter with every moment the connection continued. The creature bobbed in the air, moving from side to side and causing pollen of Darkness to drift from it. "I think," Nick said cautiously as he pointed at the Heartless, " _that_ is a Night Howler."

Finnick growled again and the Darkness connecting him to the Heartless vanished, at which point the creature rose into the air and flew off. The Darkness around Finnick began to coagulate, hardening into a shell that made him seem so much larger than he was. "We need to catch that thing!" Judy shouted, finger pointing at the retreating creature. Until Nick tackled her out of the way of a black fireball that Finnick had launched their way.

"Carrots, I think we can do that later, when we aren't about to be killed by my buddy," Nick said as he and the rabbit made their way to their feet. Nick held his hands out in front of him and approached Finnick. "Hey... come on, Finnick! Come on, Buddy! You aren't going to bite the face off of ol' Nicky, are ya?"

Finnick took a half step forward and cocked his head to the side, as if unsure. Then the Darkness around him intensified and he leaped forward, teeth glinting as he, apparently, made quite an effort to bite Nick's face off. The fox yelped and raised his arms in front of his face, staying exactly where he was standing between Finnick and Judy. "Good job not moving. Probably would've hit Judy if you had," Jaune said. Nick opened his eyes, seeing that the Keyblade wielding dog had jumped between him and Finnick at the last moment, catching the claws of the fennec's massive Dark aura on the weapon. "This way -" And then the Dark aura around the fox grew denser, condesning into a thin layer of black surrounding Finnick as his eyes began to glow yellow, and Jaune was thrown backwards over Nick, crashing through the roof of the barn then out of the other side of the roof until he collided with the ground.

Yang immediately leaped into action, shoulder colliding with Finnick and shoving them both into a tree far from Judy and Nick. Finnick snapped at Yang's throat over and over, his teeth only blocked by the bracer she had jammed up next to her head. Finnick's back collided with the tree, shattering the trunk. The sudden jolt sent Finnick flying off of Yang, flipping midair until he landed feet first against a tree. He leaped towards Yang, and she raised her arms to block the attack, only for the fennec to vanish in front of her. She yelped as he reappeared beside her, crashing claws first into her side. Yang screamed out in pain as it carved through her Aura. She stumbled away, clutching at her side and raising her off hand up defensively. "Dammit, the Lion wasn't this strong last time," she mumbled as Finnick growled and slowly advanced towards her. Sparks of Thunder magic began to jump from his body, coiling and stretching as he stalked towards his prey.

When Mercury's foot collided with his head, Finnick didn't even budge. He simply turned towards the snow leopard and grabbed Merc's ankle with his teeth. The Thunder magic disappeared for a moment, and then Mercury was screaming as electricity filled his body, leaving him paralyzed from the inside out. Then Finnick turned and tossed the limp Mercury towards the barn before returning his attention to Yang, who was now healed enough by her Aura to hold both hands in front of her at the ready.

Mercury tumbled through the door of the barn and prepared to crash headfirst into some old, rusty farm equipment. Thankfully, Jaune appeared just in time to catch Mercury, bringing the both of them to a stop just before the pain would have arrived. When Jaune put him down, Mercury groaned and rubbed his neck. "That tiny fox packs a punch."

Jaune groaned. "Way too much of one," he agreed. He readied the Keyblade. "Yang and I are way stronger than the last time we were here, which means that the Savage Predators are even stronger now, too." He frowned as something came to him. "The panic, that... Night Howler Heartless is feeding off of it, making it stronger."

"Great theory, doesn't matter," Mercury said as he stretched his legs. "Now, we need to get fighting."

"Not without a plan," Jaune said, grabbing Mercury's arm.

Mercury shoved him off. "Don't tell me what to do," he growled. He jabbed Jaune in the chest.

"We need to have a plan, or we'll be too exhausted to go after the Heartless. We need to work together," Jaune begged, clenching his fist at his side.

"..." Mercury glared at him, then back to Yang barely holding her own defensively against Finnick. "If it were either of us, we'd be dead already."

Jaune followed his gaze. "Honestly? Yeah."

Mercury sighed. "Okay, what've you got?"

Jaune smiled softly and nodded. "Okay. Judy has fox repellent. You're the only one fast enough to get it and then get into whatever tiny opening Yang and I can get you. You supercharge it with Light magic, and..."

"Maybe it'll be enough. Not bad," Mercury finished. He nodded at Jaune. "I'll do it."

"Then let's go," Jaune said, and he sprinted towards Finnick, who now had Yang pinned and his mouth held off by her palms. Jaune brought the Keyblade around as hard as he could and the fennec was forced off Yang, rolling to the side and up to his feet to growl at them both.

Yang jumped to her feet. "You're late," she growled at Jaune. "What, did fetch take longer than you expected?"

"Ha ha," Jaune retorted, his eyes never leaving Finnick. "Merc and I have a plan. We just need to keep Finnick busy."

"But I've been doing that this entire time!" Yang protested. She groaned and glared at the fox. "Fine. But this plan better be pretty foxy!"

Jaune grinned at her. "You know it," he agreed, and the two sprinted at Finnick. Jaune got there first and slashed overhead, but Finnick jumped to the side. As the fox moved, he lashed out and snapped at Jaune's other arm. "Sol!" The shield extended, catching Finnicke's jaw on the metal and surprising the fennec enough that he shot past Jaune and into Yang's fist. Finnick was tossed back, but he flipped midair and avoided the Keyblade swinging at him. Black flame exploded from his claws, shooting forward and wrapping around Jaune's waist. "Crud."

And then Finnick rocketed towards Jaune, biting the dog tail Jaune kept forgetting about. "YOWCH!" Jaune snapped, running towards Yang. "YANG! GET HIM OFF!"

"I'm trying!" Yang snapped, trying to punch the fennec, but continuously missing because of Jaune's random movement. "I... Just – Agh!" Growing fed up, Yang tripped Yang with her foot and lashed out with her fist as he fell. Finnick yelped in animalistic surprise and let go of Jaune's tail before slamming into the ground. Finnick snarled and the Darkness around him vanished. Yang raised an eyebrow. "Uh..." Then a sphere of condensed Darkness shot towards Yang. "Crapbaskets!" She threw herself tot he side, cring out in pain as the sphere burned through some of the hairs on her cottontail. She rolled to her feet on one side of Finnick, while Jaune stood on the other. "You messed with my hair!? I'll kill you!"

Finnick just snarled in response before bounding in a zig zag towards Yang, the black Aura bursting to life again around him. Yang roared as he leaped towards her, her hair and fur completely aflame and her eyes glowing like rubies in the sunlight. She raised her fist and slammed it into his face... coming to a complete standstill. Yang blinked. "Well, that's new," she muttered before his claws swiped at her elbow, bending it and letting him scratch across her face.

Jaune ran up behind Finnick and pulled him off Yang, only for the tiny fox to turn in his hands and begin scratching at his face. Jaune screamed and fell on his back, struggling to keep the fox from carving him to shreds. Yang shouted and ran forward, trying to pry Finnick off of her partner.

And then Mercury walked up, flanked by Judy and Nick, and sprayed mace charged with Light magic on Finnick and he quickly fell unconscious. "You two are idiots," Mercury told the dog on his back and the rabbit bent over him.

"Hey! Don't be mean to Judy and Nick!" Yang shouted.

"I think he meant us," Jaune grumbled before Yang pulled him to his feet. The group looked down at Finnick, the Darkness gone and now snoozing on the grass. "If the Heartless can make animals this strong and Dark, it's going to be tough. Really tough." He raised his Keyblade and summoned magical chains, tying Finnick to the ground in case he woke up again.

"Not to mention if it does something like that to one of us," Yang pointed out, forcing Jaune to picture an image of a wild – wilder – er, _wilder-er –_ Yang beating the crap out of him. He shivered in fear.

"Which brings up an important question. How the hell is it doing this?" Nick asked. He leaned down and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "And why Finnick instead of any of us?"

Jaune, Yang, and Mercury all glanced at one another. "Uh..."

"Questions even the aliens can't answer," Nick mumbled dryly. He sighed and pulled out his phone as he stood up. "Well, we can't leave Finnick here, out of control. We're going to have to call Chief Big Butt and tell them to pick him up."

"That's probably the best idea, Nick," Judy said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "That way he can get the help he needs."

"Just funny. We promised we'd never rat each other out, and now he needs it," Nick said with a dry laugh. He finished dialing the hotline for savage animals, then walked off to speak to the operator.

Judy watched him go for a few moments, then turned and frowned. "Wait a second – I know what this is!" She rushed off, leaving a confused Jaune, Mercury, and Yang to stare after her. They glanced at one another for a moment, then charged after her. "Midnicampum holicithias!"

"What? Midnight camping holy chanting!" Yang shouted, snapping her fingers. "Of course!"

"No, she said Midas carpal hole sith," Jaune interjected simply.

Judy glared at those two before turning to Mercury with an eyebrow raised, awaiting something stupid. He shook his head. "No, I'm not even going to try."

"Night howlers," Judy said.

Yang and Jaune blinked. "Ohhhhhhhh!" they both shouted.

Judy sighed and slapped her forehead before turning back to the flower. "But whe – oh! There's more!" She rushed to the next. Then pointed further. "It's an entire path!"

Judy frowned and glanced up, then over at the barn, then at the sky again. Then: "Wait, they're heading in the same direction as that Heartless! We can track it to whoever is in charge, to whoever orchestrated this entire plot!"

"My thoughts exactly, Carrots. And then I can... relieve them of whatever it is they're using to control this thing," Nick explained as he walked up, pocketing his phone. He straightened his tie. "Not that I've ever done that to anyone before. What kind of animal would _steal_ from someone else, after all?"

"I mean, stealing only happens if you get caught," Mercury pointed out, earning a laugh and a high five from Nick.

"He likes Finnick and Nick too much," Yang pointed out, arms crossed.

Jaune rolled his eyes. "You're just jealous. Last time we were here, Nick was your best friend."

"... It can be both."

Jaune grinned at his partner and shook his head. "So, what's in that direction?" Jaune asked after a moment, pointing towards the next flower.

Judy put a hand on her chin. "I don't know. I've never really been out this far," she muttered.

Nick put up a finger. "And this is where the smart fox comes in..." Nick pressed the button on the carrot pen. _"Dumb bunny!_ " He laughed and tapped his head with the pen. "If we follow these flowers, we'll eventually run into an old, abandoned subway station. One that I've heard... 'unsavory' individuals have used to hide... let's call it 'hot' merchandise."

"Popular stuff?" Jaune asked.

Mercury shook his head. " _Stolen_ stuff," he said.

Jaune sighed. "I should've expected that," he muttered, tapping his snout.

"Oh, but then who would be a good boy?" Yang asked in her 'Zwei' voice as she reached up and began scratching behind Jaune's ear. The dog man began to pant heavily and appreciatively until he realized what he was doing and shoved her hand from his head. "Who? _You!_ "

"Then let's get going. The sooner we get that Night Howler, the sooner we can save Emerald," Mercury growled, then he sprinted off down the path of flowers, leaving everyone else to eat his dust.

"Makes you bunnies look slow," Nick pointed out, chastising Judy. "And speed's all you've got going for you!"

"My sister is faster," Yang snapped before chasing Mercury, intent on beating him there.

Judy shook her head and said, "I'd rather be cautious anyways."

Nick shrugged. "Then... shall we?" he asked, motioning down the path of flowers with both hands.


	24. Truly Savage

**AN:**

 **Howdy. Sorry this took so long. There's been a lot going on at home that needed my attention. Let's see... Happy Belated Chanukah, and Merry Christmas. Probably Happy New Year, too if I'm being realistic.**

 **Haven't had a chance to watch Volume 6 yet. I have seen some things on the internet, though. I kind of find it funny that what I put in the first SMHS for how Ozpin survived and how Salem survived is the exact opposite of the show. She's immortal of the body, he's immortal of the Heart/Soul.**

 **Now for responses:**

 **To Gamelover41592: Yeah, I really liked the Night Howler Heartless idea. It was the first concept I came up with for the Zootopia world.**

 **To Remnant7: Thanks, I really want each world to feel like it isn't rushed even though you only see it for like 4-7 chapters at most.**

 **To G3r1k: Oh, the puns must always be strong. And it is too bad I'm not sending Cardin to Zootopia. Though, if anyone in RWBY could find a way to suck even after being in a great Disney movie, it might be Cardin.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! See you later!**

 _ **Chapter 24: Truly Savage**_

"Are we there yet?"

Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose. "No, we aren't, Yang," he sighed as he answered the question for the hundredth time since entering this creepy, decrepit subway.

"Are we there yet?"

Judy groaned and shook her head. "No, Nick, we _aren't_."

The two traded a tired look and just shook their heads before following the trail of flowers again. There was an intake of breath from Yang and Jaune spun on his heel, eye twitching. "What?" Yang asked worriedly. "I was just going to ask who you thought we were going to find at the end of this trail?" She paused and tilted her head to the side. "You didn't you think I was going to ask 'Are we there yet?' again?"

"That reminds me – Carrots, are we there yet?" Nick asked, grinning with all the enjoyment he got out of Judy's exasperated glare. "Well, are we?"

"One of these days, Nick," Judy replied, deciding that trying to get on him for this just wasn't worth it right then and there. "One of these days..."

"Oh, Carrots, if I stopped you wouldn't know what to do," Nick pointed out. "It would almost be worse for Good Boy over there if Goldilocks stopped. After all, he's learned to give in and have fun with it, now."

"Not with 'Are we there yets,'" Jaune pointed out, rubbing his temple. "Never with that."

"Ah, spoilsport," Yang muttered with a grin.

"Adorable," Mercury growled, a good ten feet back. "Truly. But you guys overshot the turn back here."

The four others turned around to see the leopard was indeed right. Distracted as they had been by Nick's and Yang's poor attempts at levity, they had failed to see that the trail of bright blue flowers had angled up and off the tracks, towards a stairway leading out of the subway. "Oh! Thanks, Merc," Jaune said, rushing up to high five Mercury. The ex-assassin just sidestepped the attempt and moved towards the stairs, leaving a dejected Jaune to stare at his hand then look at Merc's back as he ascended. "He... left me hanging..."

Yang hopped up and gave him a high five. "There, now you're not hanging," she said, nudging his knee with her hip when she hit the ground. "Ignore him, 'kay?"

"..." Jaune shook his head and followed Mercury up the stairs, dog ears drooping to hide his eyes.

"Ah, I know that look," Nick said as he came to a stop beside Yang. She glanced over to see his eyes locked on Jaune. "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a scout, you know sell popcorn and get badges. The whole deal. So my mom saved up for months to get me that uniform and send me to the first meeting. When I got there, my 'friends' put a muzzle on me, all for being a fox." His gaze turned to Yang. "Not easy for a kid to deal with the people he trusts have it out for him."

Yang growled. "We're not kids," she hissed before bounding after Jaune.

Judy rolled her eyes from beside Nick. "I said the same thing when I was a kid."

"You too, huh? Glad it wasn't just me," he joked, giving her a pat on the back before the two began to follow their protectors. "Course, I couldn't cut a bus in half when I was a kid, so..."

"I shudder to think what you would have done, Nick," Judy said dryly, earning a scoff of false indignation from her partner. "If you had a key that could unlock any door, where would Zootopia's treasury be now?"

"Fair point," Nick conceded.

"Where are we?" Mercury asked as the group reached the top of the stairway, crossing his arms and looking around. They had followed the trail of flowers into an abandoned building with a huge open space. There were objects of various size all around them, all covered in massive white sheets. A huge mammoth with a spear stood at the top of the stairs, glaring down at those entering from the subway. Scaffolds near unpainted or unfinished walls sat silently, waiting for someone to come. Massive lights dangled from stone arches, flooding the entire building with light. The ceiling was glass, though no light came in from outside. "Night already?"

Judy checked her phone. "Not for another few hours," she muttered worriedly, her eyes drifting up to the glass ceiling.

"Then that means the Heartless' strength is peaking." The group turned to Jaune, his blue eyes steeled like his Heart for the coming battle. He turned back to Judy and Nick. "I'd feel better if you stayed back with one of us."

"We're seeing this through to the end," Judy resolutely said, standing taller.

Nick grimaced, significantly less enthused by that road. "Eh..." Judy elbowed him in the gut. "Oof! I mean, yep! All the way through."

Yang laughed. "You sound like Jaune, Merc, and me back when we got mixed up with Sora," she exclaimed, mirth growing.

Judy frowned. "And now you regret it?"

Merc shrugged. "I mean, a little."

" _No,_ " Yang growled at the leopard before turning back to Nick and Judy. "Just wished I'd known what I was getting into."

Nick laughed nervously. "And, uh, what was that?"

"Oh, end of the World, apocalypse, brainwashing type stuff. And that was before we got sent off on our own to deal with -"

"That but with an evil twin," Merc said, gesturing at Jaune.

Judy and Nick traded a glance. "Then... let's keep going," Nick said for the both of them.

Jaune sighed. "Okay. If that's your decision," he said. He gestured at the trail of flowers. "Let's go." He took off, Keyblade reappearing in his hand as they moved, all getting ready for what was coming.

They followed the trail to its end, the ledge above a large, open space in the ground leading to an exhibit of animals acting like – in Yang, Jaune, and Mercury's experience at least – animals. Walking on all fours, stalking through grass. The models were very detailed, both predator and prey. The group looked over the ledge, peering down. "But where's the trail go from here?"

"I doubt too far," uttered a voice from the other side of the hole. The group glanced up to see a small sheep come out of the shadows, her pink glasses and white puffball atop her head giving her a very non-threatening look.

Everyone gasped. Well, except Mercury. He looked around at the shocked faces of the others, then gasped as well. "Oh, God! It's you? You're the villain?" he asked dramatically. "You... uh... The... er... Ewe Sheeperton?" He sighed and shook his head. He threw his hands up in exasperation. "No, guys, come on. I have no clue. Who the hell is this?"

"Mayor Bellwether?!" Judy shouted, surprise echoing.

"Right... Uh, wait... no, that doesn't help," Mercury sighed, rubbing his thumb between his eyes.

Nick scoffed. "But you helped us."

Mercury nodded. "Ohhhhhh... Okay. Okay, that makes more sense, now. You thought she was a friend!" he said. He turned to Yang and laughed. "Jeez, that happens to you a lot."

Yang turned an eye on him, narrowing both. "Really? _You_ are going to bring that up?"

Mercury glanced at the ground, then back up at her. "Yes?"

"Being ignored by a pred," Bellwether spat, drawing their attention again. "Of course. How normal for me... Ugh, Get them."

Jaune and Mercury reacted before any of the others, the smell of Darkness filling their throats before any of the others knew what was happening. A wall of Darkness exploded towards them. Jaune and Merc jumped in front of the others, prepared to take the blow. Still, the force of the attack managed to catch the entire group and sending them tumbling off of the edge and into the exhibit below, the outworlders suffering the most. The ground rushed to meet them with a series of thuds that melted together, the result of landing in a single large heap in such quick sequence. Bellwether looked over the edge, her pet Night Howler floating menacingly beside her, its blue petals dripping with Darkness now.

Judy and Nick pushed up first, having landed on top of everyone else. Judy glared up at the sheep. "Why are you doing this!?"

Her eyes locked onto Judy. "Oh, if only you could have gone with the lines you were being fed," Bellwether sighed, brushing her hair back with one hand. "Maybe then I wouldn't have to have your stupid little fox kill you."

The Night Howler's petals grew excited, dancing and casting off more Darkness like pollen as an unspoken command filled its broken thoughts of hunger. The agitated dance from side to side quickened, and the Darkness congealed in a stream shooting from the Heartless emblem on one petal towards the surprised fox faster than he could react. Judy could react fast enough, though, seeing as she was a bunny. She leaped into his shoulder, sending Nick tumbling across the ground as she took the full brunt of the Heart altering attack.

Jaune and Merc jumped up just after the blast hit her, having finally recovered from taking the brunt of the attack, and Yang clambered out from beneath them. "Carrots!" Nick was screaming, crawling towards the unconscious rabbit. "Carrots, come on!" He put his hands on her back and began shaking her. "Judy!"

Jaune and the others ran over, casting healing spells to try and fix what had happened, but it was no use. The rabbit remained unconscious. "Huh. That's certainly different from what I expected," Bellwether said, placing one hoof on her hip and tossing a glance to the Night Howler. "I kind of want to see how it plays out."

As if in response, the stream of Darkness connecting the rabbit and Heartless congealed, strengthening and solidifying into an aura around the unconscious bunny. The others were tossed back by a pulse of energy, spread across the exhibit by the radial force. Various animal replicas splintered as bodies crashed through them, grass was flattened by tumbling forms, and jagged trenches were carved as weapons were summoned and dug into the ground. Jaune came to a stop first, catching Nick, who had been sent flying the same way. Yang and Mercury were next, their weapons not as useful for stopping without a surface to rebound from. Both kicked off of the walls where they had landed, concrete cracking from the force as they flew towards their new opponent.

"They can't hurt her!" Nick begged, his hand clenched tight around something. Jaune didn't know what; he had more important things to deal with.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," Jaune muttered dryly as the massive, fanged, clawed, flaming form of a bunny made of Darkness swatted Yang to the ground, then lashed out with its powerful hind legs in a blow that overpowered his own kick and sent his knee right into his face. The tiny gray bunny in the core of the creature moved in sync with the larger shadow, though the Darkness seemed to be slowly encroaching on Judy. Snuffing out her Light, ever so slowly.

Jaune put Nick down carefully, then braced and pulled the Keyblade from the ground. "Nick, find -" he began, trying to implore the fox to hide while he tried to figure something out. A bolt of pure Darkness flew from the shadow's maw towards Jaune before he could finish, and he was forced to bring his Keyblade down to block the attack. The Keyblade collided with the bolt of energy, naturally summoning up a small wall of magic that held off the force coming his way, while Nick was sent tumbling into the wall by the winds whipping around the room.

"Ooh, this is good so far," Bellwether said, an evil grin on her face.

Jaune ignored her and tried to put one foot in front of the other to approach Judy. Losing that second point of balance was not the answer, it turned out, and he lost control of the block, sending him back first into the ground. The bolt of energy flew over him and crashed into the wall above Nick, vaporizing it completely. Nick yelped and clutched at his tail, which had almost been in the way of the attack. "Watch it, Carrots! I'm not as indestructible as our weird friends!"

Yang leaped up from behind the rabbit, fist glowing with Light magic. "Come on, Judy! That wasn't nice!" And she brought her fist down on the head of the shadow, the Light magic burning through it for a moment, only for the Darkness to surge once more. Energy flooded out of the wound, solidifying and colliding with Yang's head. She grunted in pain, flipping midair before Judy leaped up and swatted the golden rabbit effortlessly to the ground. Yang hit the floor with a loud thud, the flames of her hair flaring briefly as her semblance absorbed the force before extinguishing. The shadowy rabbit's claws glowed with deadly Dark Blizzard spells and she hopped off of the air to attack the prone brawler.

Mercury and Jaune rushed forward, kicking up and raising the Keyblade respectively. The ice magic exploded around them, freezing the ground but leaving the three safe. Judy rebounded, spinning out of control for a brief moment before the pair jumped up after her, grabbing hold of the large ears flopping about on the shadow's head. With a mighty heave, the duo brought her around and tossed her at the ground, where a recovered Yang waited with a fist of Light readied. The rabbit's legs hit another invisible wall and it bounced out of the way of the punch, and the bright glow slammed into Jaune and Mercury. The duo yelped as the bright energy burned across them. They lost control of their fall and Yang jumped forward, groaning as she tried to get in the right place to catch them. She managed to catch them, though that just meant all three could get hit by a the claws of Judy's shadow as she jumped off the air again. The trio slammed into the concrete wall, then hit the ground, breathing heavily. "Is it just me, or is she stronger than Finnick?" Yang groaned, pushing herself up and into a defensive position.

"If you three can't stop a rabbit under the control of the Night Howler, then imagine a cheetah or a tiger like this! Zootopia is mine, now. Predators, those – ha – _savages,_ will never be trusted again."

"Could you stuff a wool sock in it!?" Mercury snapped at the sheep. "You creepy sheepy!?"

"... Kill him first."

"Of frickin' course," Mercury growled under his breath as the glowing yellow eyes of the rabid rabbit turned on him.

"I'm just glad it's not me for once," Jaune whispered to Yang, eliciting a barely contained snort.

The rabbit's legs tensed, readying to leap ahead and shred her friends. Claws began to glow with sickly, green magic that burned the false grass beneath them. "I never once thought the face of death would be a bunny rabbit," Yang muttered.

Jaune glanced at her, looking her up and down before turning away. "I expected _a_ bunny rabbit to be the face of death," he admitted.

"Really? Wh – hey!" Yang snapped.

"Great. I die next to that," Mercury said, sounding utterly defeated even while he got into a ready position. "... Whatever it is."

"Carrots, wait!"

The rabbit turned and glared at Nick, who was standing with his left paw palm out at Judy, his right one clenched at his waist. He licked his – er, Jaune supposed 'lips' was the best analogy at the moment – lips nervously as the rabbit shadow cocked its head to the side. "You could kill him first, too. Playing with my wool without my permission!"

Nick shook his head. "Yeah, probably should've asked, but like Chester over there said, could you stuff a wool sock in it?" Nick growled. "Unless your evil plan is complaining us all to death." He turned back to the rabbit. "Carrots – Judy... come on. You're going to let _Smellwether_ control you?"

"Don't call me that!" Bellwether snapped, her voice growing unhinged.

Nick glanced at Yang, Jaune, and Mercury and motioned with his eyes towards the Heartless. The trio made no acknowledgment that they had understood him, but he knew they had. "Carrots, come on," he mumbled as the rabbit began to advance on him, claws digging into the ground. The fox held his paw out, palm up, offering it to her. "Wake up, for me."

The rabbit leaped at him, maw gaping wide. Nick felt his Heart plummet to his gut, and a sadness spread through his limbs. The others turned and rushed towards the scene, knowing they wouldn't make it in time. Nick bared his teeth, enraged. "Carrots! I'll fight for you even if it kills me!" he screamed, rushing her as well, like an idiot.

A Light flashed from his chest and from Judy's, and the shadow vanished. The stream of Darkness flew back towards the Heartless and it screamed in pain as the energy rebounded through its core. A small, unmoving creature slammed into Nick's chest and sent him to the ground. He grabbed her head and pulled it up. "Carrots? Carrots! Wake up!" His right fist clenched tighter on her back. "Carrots!"

"Oh, well this has turned out better than I could have hoped!" the sheep shouted from beside the Heartless She reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone, quickly dialing for the police. "Hello? Oh, dear, a fox has gone savage and is attacking Officer Hopps at the Natural History Museum! Please come quick, there are bystanders! Oh, God, I think she's about to die!"

"So, what? You're going to sic that monster on us now that you've killed Judy!?" Nick screamed at the sheep as the call ended, tears running from his eyes.

Jaune felt his Heart sink. She was... dead? He turned with rage up to the Heartless and Bellwether. They were going to pay, they were – He stopped when Mercury pulled him in tight for a hug. "Wait. Plan," the former assassin hissed under his breath.

"It's not like she's the first animal I've killed through all this," Bellwether said dismissively. She pocketed her phone and laughed. "And once I pin the blame on you, a fox, a predator, for the murder of _hero cop Judy Hopps_? Ha! Well, I won't even have to make another predator go savage. The prey of Zootopia will take care of everything themselves, call for me to make changes. Changes I will, of course, make. It'll protect animals from those nasty, evil, _savage_ predators."

"But the only evil animal is you!" Yang growled. "Framing and hurting predators so you can have power!"

"... And respect," the sheep laughed.

"We'll tell the cops everything when they get here!"

"Even if you survived," Bellwether told them, smirking. "It'd be my word – Mayor Bellwether, who called in the crime, witnessed everything and is _so_ shaken by it – versus yours."

"Actually..." Jaune froze and pushed out of Mercury's grip. A woozy, half-unconscious Judy Hopps was sitting up next to Nick, a triumphant grin on her face. "It'll be _your_ word, against yours."

Nick grinned and raised his right hand. From between his fingers came the sheep's voice: "It's not like she's the first animal I've killed through all this."

Bellwether's smirk slowly disintegrated. She slammed a hoof on the ground and shrieked a command at the Heartless. "Destroy it!"

The creature flew into action, a horrendous shriek echoing as it charged the defenseless rabbit and fox. Darkness sparked in its hands, and a large pair of garden shears appeared in its hands, only to split apart into a pair of blades. The blades arced towards the pair, and they could do little but prepare to die. Except that the Heartless was moving so _slow_ , Mercury thought. He was in front of it in a flash, his heel planted firmly on its face. There was a momentary pause as the monster's momentum was immediately frozen, and then reversed. It flew away, soaring over the edge of the pit until it hit something large and fragile, accompanied by the clatter of shattering glass or crystal.

"You two stay safe. We've got this," Mercury said, tossing a grin over his shoulder. He tensed his legs and leaped, bouncing from wall to wall until he was out of the exhibit. Nick had done it. He'd somehow saved Judy from the Darkness, a Darkness so powerful it could rip holes in time, or something. Which meant, for the first time since Em had been kidnapped by Ja – by OJ, Mercury felt hope bubbling up in his gut.

He reached the Heartless well before the others, and gave the stupid sheep a good nudge in the small of her back as he passed so she tipped over into the exhibit. Nick and Judy might not have the strength that those from Remnant had, but they could have fun fighting one weak sheep and getting some justice along the way, right?

He slid to a stop just before the Heartless' shears would have sliced off his head, and the solid darkness passed by him without hurting him. The purple Dark Balloon flying from the shears was another matter, and the magic that hit him was overwhelming. Mercury felt his Aura fluctuate wildly as the spell exploded, burning his skin as his Aura worked overtime to heal it almost immediately. He roared in pain and was thrown back, saved only by Jaune catching him as he ran up, a Cure spell bringing his Aura back up to stability. "Okay. Weaker, not weak," Mercury growled. He shoved Jaune away from him as Yang sprinted by them both, hair aglow with power and rage.

"You know what happens to a flower in a fire!?" Yang shouted as she leaped up, fist glowing with red hot embers. "Same as everything else!" Her fist came down, colliding with the garden shears as they came up at the last moment. Fire exploded from the point of contact, and the Night Howler was sent skidding backwards, the shears staying crossed in front of it. As it forced itself to a stop, it became obvious that Yang's attack had done far more than it had expected. A thin crack appeared on the outer shear, snaking along the blade's width until, with a sharp and echoing clang, the weapon shattered in the Heartless' left hand. The form was now formless, the separate parts of the weapon drifting upward as black smoke and eventually vanishing.

The three warriors pressed this advantage, sprinting forward in tandem before splitting off to confront the Heartless from every side. Yang attacked from the front, having firmly locked its attention on her with her last attack, while Jaune and Merc attacked from opposite sides. She lashed out, fist driving towards the monster's head. It floated to the side, her attack and tiny, rabbit body flying past. Its dodge took it into the path of Mercury's attack, forcing the powerful Heartless to pivot the remaining half of the garden shears to catch the boot. Ice shot out from the point of contact, spreading along the blade and extending to the ground and over the creature's hand. The Heartless was stuck, giving Jaune more than enough time to get in close, blade coated with Blizzard energy as well, and deliver a pair of quick hits on its head. Ice exploded across the Night Howler's skull just as its powerful form tore the shear from the ice.

The now blinded Heartless swung the shear around, catching Jaune on his armored shoulder as he fell. He was tossed by the glancing blow, crashing through glass and into another exhibit. Jaune made a whining dog noise as he hit the foot of some animal or another. He slowly opened his eyes and groaned, forcing the noise to be more human as it started to come out as another canine whimper. He shoved the tip of the Keyblade into the ground and pushed himself up before opening his eyes.

The Keyblade was glowing.

Jaune swallowed anxiously.

The Keyblade was glowing a brilliant gold. And it wasn't because of him. He glanced around nervously, the fight he was part of no longer of importance to him, just the Keyblade's spontaneous activity. He was in an exhibit, standing in the middle of a false river that separated a pride of bipedal lions in cavemen clothes from a tribe of anthropomorphic zebras in loincloths. The leaders of the tribes had their hands clasped, and their weapons lowered or unready for combat. Jaune realized what this was, and why the Keyblade was glowing, all at once. This was an exhibit that was the core of Zootopia: the birth of peace between predator and prey, both conquering their Darkness and fear to join each other. The most core concept of the world itself, a place that represented the world's very Heart.

Its Keyhole.

The clasped hands were glowing now, pulsing with white Light in time with the Kingdom Key.

"JAUNE, LOOK OUT!"

Jaune turned, bringing the Keyblade with him. The Heartless had escaped from the beating of Yang and Mercury and was charging him, now. No, not him – the Keyhole. Jaune tightened his grip on the Keyblade. The monster was worse for wear, with the remaining shear left buried in the ground and various patches of flame or ice eating away at the petals of its lower body. Half of its head was still frozen solid from Jaune's attack, and the remaining eye had gone scarlet with rage. It was no less dangerous despite these injuries, and this last gasp of power might have made it more dangerous. Jaune didn't know. All he knew was that he had to stop it. No matter what it took, he couldn't let this world die. He sprinted towards the Heartless, Keyblade raised. He got closer and closer, the danger growing with every step. Jaune brought the Keyblade around, the glow turning into a blade of Light as it moved, and slammed it into the monster's aura of Darkness.

There was a pulse of energy as Dark and Light began to fight for dominance, and Jaune fought through it, resisting the power that wanted to throw him back. He shoved as hard as he could, driving the weapon into the Heartless' aura. The glow pushed deeper, getting closer to the creature's core. Jaune pushed down on the Darkness in his Heart, the hate of the creature before him. He was going to win, he was going to save his friends. If he drew only on the Light, he could –

And then the blade shattered, and Jaune felt a hollow coldness spread throughout his body. The Heartless stopped its advance immediately and floated above the him, who was now panting on his hands and knees. It was hungry for his Heart, the Heart of a Keyblade wielder. A meal rarer than even a world's Heart. And, in its hesitation, its fate was sealed. From the left came Yang, a fireball coated chandelier between her hands, and from the right came Mercury, a massive metal spear charged with Thundaga held in front of him. The chandelier and spear crashed into the Heartless with a massive explosion that barely gave Jaune time to summon a Reflega wall as it expanded towards him.

As the dust cleared, Jaune felt a pair of tiny hands pull him to his feet. "Not bad, Good Boy. You stopped it in its tracks all by yourself," Yang said, clapping the back of his leg in approval. She crossed her arms and nodded at the smoking crater. "Believe me, it was annoyingly fast, even weakened and blind. So, good job giving me and the Pu-"

"Don't call me that again," Mercury growled as he walked up from within the crater, eyes narrowed. He pulled his hand from his pocket to reveal what he had been in the crater for: a bright blue sphere, perhaps the size of a fingertip. The blue within the orb was... wrong, almost. As if it was sucking the Light out of everything around it, or would be if it were not for the thin but strong surace containing it. Mercury's face curled into a smirk. "I got the thing."

Jaune and Yang began to grin and a feeling of accomplishment began to flood their Hearts, something they had not felt in what felt like a very long time. They had just gotten to one of the four remaining Items that OJ needed, before he could even find it. If they could get it to Sora and Ozpin before OJ could find them... they could stop him from ever achieving his goal. Saving Emerald and stopping that monster were one step closer, visible on the horizon. Yang grabbed the sphere to examine it, then passed it off to Jaune – which made Mercury flinch nervously.

He examined it for a moment, then handed it off to Yang and returned his attention to the exhibit. The Keyblade was bright white again, like a small sun. Jaune took a deep breath, then walked towards the exhibit, stopping a few feet from the river where the zebras and lions had met. He slowly raised the Keyblade in front of him, a magical wind filling the air. The tip of the Keyblade slowly created a swirling vortex of Light, summoning the image of a keyhole into being between the lions and zebras. The air behind Jaune, Yang and Mercury noticed as they approached, was glowing with the rising sun of the Arc family. And then the light on the Keyblade and in the insignia flashed in time, and a thin beam of Light traveled from the tip of the Keyblade and into the keyhole. The world shuddered for a moment, before the echoing noise of a lock tumbling filled the museum. Jaune stared at the fading Keyhole and removed his left hand from the Keyblade, letting it fall to his side.

"What are you three doing?"

Yang yelped and quickly pocketed the orb before looking towards the source of the voice, a massive water buffalo. Standing beside Chief Bogo were Nick and Judy... and a handcuffed Bellwether. "Nothing much, Chief," Jaune said before dismissing the Keyblade. Yang's gauntlets vanished and Mercury's boots returned to their non-threatening appearance before the cop could ask for their permit. "Just waiting on you."

The police chief rubbed his nose and glared at Yang, the ghost of healed scratches and bruises becoming visible on his features. She grinned at the him and he flinched back. "What? Terrified of a tiny bunny?" Yang asked. The chief elected to ignore her rather than risk another incident.

The water buffalo instead turned and looked down at the struggling sheep. "Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, public endangerment, inciting criminal actions..."

"I think," Nick said as he walked over, hands in his pockets, "this is going to be a while."

 _ **R W B Y**_

And it did. Hours. Not just the reading of charges and Miranda rights, that only took about ten minutes. But interviews, taking statements, gathering evidence, taking the footage from the museum security cameras, and dealing with the reporters that had congregated outside of the museum. That all together had taken the rest of the time. Eventually, though, the re-hired Officer Judy Hopps and freshly accepted Cadet Wilde were alone with Jaune, Yang, and Mercury were near the destroyed barn where they had first encountered the Night Howler. "I get the feeling you're hiding something from us," uttered Judy, drawing an anxious look from Jaune. "Or are you just trying to avoid witness duty?"

"Wh-whaddya mean?" Jaune chuckled and glanced from side to side. And ever the bad liar, his voice basically snapped in two as he said, "I've never hidden a secret in my entire life!"

Yang and Mercury glanced at each other over his head, then returned their gazes back to Nick and Judy. "Do you really want to try and explain flying flower monsters in court?" Mercury wondered with a shrug. He gestured at the dog. "Or aliens with magic, a weapon that appears out of thin air, or spaceships?"

"Better to be under oath and be able to just say... 'Er, brainwashing?'" Yang suggested with a scoff. "And we as witnesses would be... bad."

"It's not perjury if you don't know if it's true," Jaune supplied, glad Yang and Mercury had saved him. "At least, I think so."

"It doesn't matter," Judy said with a sigh.

Nick laughed. "That's an understatement, Carrots. Between hero cop here testifying and the recording the police downloaded from the pen, we're almost as golden as Goldilocks," he explained, gesturing at Yang.

"That is _really_ gold," Yang muttered, looking down at her leporine body with an impressed look on her face.

"So, I guess you guys are leaving," Judy asked with a sad smile.

Jaune and Yang sighed. "Yeah."

"Forever?" Nick wondered, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Well, we have big problems to worry about. And Zootopia is mostly safe, now," Jaune explained. He laughed dryly: "If you see us again, it means things are going to get way worse."

"Or we got really weird, really fast," Yang said, causing Jaune's ears to roll back in embarrassment while Mercury guffawed at the fox and rabbit's confused glares.

"What does that mean?" Judy wondered, vaguely concerned.

Nick shook his head. "Please don't tell us," he muttered, disgust permeating his voice.

"Really, though, we'll drop in eventually," Mercury said. He looked around. "I think Em would like it here. I wonder if she could pickpocket the dogs here."

"Wha –?" Judy asked, unsure if she had just heard what she thought she had heard.

Nick put his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Carrots. Just leave it."

The rabbit glanced at him, then sighed. "Fine." She looked up at the group. "Look, before you go, we wanted to give you something to remember us by." She reached into her pocket. "I mean, you gave us so much help. We couldn't have saved Zootopia without you."

"Understatement of the millenium," Mercury muttered.

" _Anyways_ ," Judy said, pulling her hand out and tossing a glare at the leopard, "I think you guys should have this." She opened her hand and held out a small, carrot like pen to Yang. The brawler carefully took it. "We're really going to miss you guys, so..."

"Think of it as a promise. You guys have to come back some time. It's a _loan_ , not a gift," Nick finished. He patted Jaune on the head. "So be a good boy and come back, Homeward Bound."

"I... wait, how do _you_ get that reference?"

"What reference?"

"Anyways... I think we better go," Judy explained before rushing forward to hugging each of them. "And you guys should, too."

"Give that evil twin of yours a punch for me," Nick said to Jaune, slapping his back. "And if he has one of those Keys, could you –?"

"Nick..."

"Eh, nothing, Carrots!" Nick said, jumping away from Jaune, but making hand signals that he wanted a Keyblade anyways. Jaune laughed and shook his head; now was _not_ the time to get into Keyblade theory. It was way too convoluted and unclear to bother with in the last ten minutes. Instead he just gave Nick a thumbs up.

"Then, I guess this is goodbye for now," Yang said, smiling softly at the others.

Jaune sighed. "We'll see you soon, guys."

Mercury nodded. "I am in the market for a new home."

Judy and Nick frowned. "We're going to miss you guys," Judy said.

"So I guess we'll just have to see you later," Nick finished. He waved, and turned. "Try not to bring a world ending monster with you."

"No promises!" Jaune said as Judy turned and waved off, walking away with Nick until, eventually, the offworlders were alone once more.

They stared after them for a few moments, a sense of finality coming over them. If they ever did come back here, none of them would truly be the same people anymore. All three suddenly felt an urge to stay for another moment more, to avoid this change in their lives. Yang looked down at the carrot pen in her hand, then held it up to the sky. It caught the sunlight and there was a subtle glow coming from within the pen. The Keyblade appeared in Jaune's hand, unbidden, and the pen disappeared.

In Jaune's hand, the Keyblade had changed its form. The Keychain had been replaced by the pen, connected to the base of the weapon by a trio of red paws. The body of the weapon was about three and a half feet long, formed out of an interlocking series of red, used popsicle sticks. The teeth jutting out were yellow parking tickets. The handle of the weapon was red and blue, a police siren, and surrounded by a perfectly rectangular basket made from carrots that came together, green to green, ad the base of the blade. "Well... it's different," Yang supplied as they stared at the new Keyblade. She looked at Jaune. "Does it got a name?"

"Animal Accord," Jaune said, eyes locked on the weapon. He turned back to look at where Nick and Judy had left. "I'm going to miss them."

"Of course you are."

The entire group, instead of turning around, just rolled their eyes. "Why do people keep appearing behind us and speaking cryptically?" Yang wondered. "Like... what's the point. If you're an enemy, just attack. If you're a friend, greet us from the front."

"It seems a bit dumb," Mercury agreed.

Jaune shook his head. "Like they're just trying to add dramatic effect to real life, which just makes you weird."

"SHUT UP AND TURN AROUND!"

The trio sighed and did as requested, finding themselves faced with a... black cat in a black coat. He had yellow eyes and was about the same size as Jaune. "Uh... do we... know you?" Jaune asked haltingly, his confusion echoed in the grunts and nods of his team mates.

The cat blinked and glanced between all three. "You're... joking." He sighed and shook his head.

Yang shrugged, still nonplussed. "I mean, you're familiar. The voice at least."

"Then let's see if this jogs your memory," the cat snarled. He held his hand out in front of him, and black energy flashed in his palm as the Kingdom Key D burned its way into reality.

"OJ!" Jaune and Mercury snarled.

"Hm, so you're a pu-"

"Yang!" Jaune growled, slightly exasperated. "Be serious, just for now?"

She rolled her eyes and, annoyed, growled out, "OJ... Happy, Jaune?"

"Why aren't you a dog?" Mercury asked, his brain trying to come up with a reason that two of the same person could be so different on the same world. As different as night and day, black and gold... cat and dog.

"Don't know, don't care!" Jaune snarled before launching at OJ. The Keyblade in his hand glowed for a moment, then the dog's speed suddenly doubled. Mercury could barely see how quickly the Keyblade wielder was moving, and he knew he would have trouble keeping up with speed of that level. Animal Accord slammed into the Kingdom Key D. The maddened mutt and the cool cat pushed close against one another, faces close. Jaune's voice was strained from effort. "If I kill him now, it's over! We're safe from this madman!"

OJ laughed, the noise even and his single arm holding the Keyblade barely wobbling. "Careful, Jaune, that almost sounded Dark," he mocked before bending his arm and spinning. Jaune fell forward, throwing his foot out to catch himself while OJ stopped back to back with him. "And if you go Dark, everyone else will see there's no difference between us." The cat's left leg lashed backwards, catching Jaune in the middle of his back and causing him to tumble to the ground.

OJ turned his attention to the stunned Yang and Mercury. The yellow eyes lingered on the leopard last: "Now I can complete the set." Mercury's eyes widened in fear, then rage, and he rocketed towards the Keyblade wielder, Dark Thundaga trailing his every step. He roared and leaned forward, bringing his legs over and around one after the other like a windmill. The rust and gold Keyblade came around quickly to block each attack, then swung around a third time to catch Merc in the shoulder. The ex-assassin yelped in pain as he felt something in his arm give to the metal before his back suddenly hit the base of a tree.

Yang was already behind OJ, her feet colliding with the small of his back while he was distracted. A massive blast of flames exploded around them, and OJ was sent flying out of the smoking crater. He spun, out of control for a moment, before righting himself. He swung his Keyblade out to the side, teeth first, and they dug into the side of a tree. It dragged through the trunk, spinning around and slowing him until his feet came to a stop on the ground on the other side of the tree. He yanked the Keyblade out and walked towards the panting Yang, not even looking back as the tree slowly tipped over and hit the ground behind him. His feline teeth were bared and a low hiss was coming from his throat. "I vaguely remember promising to kill you first," he growled, the Keyblade glinting with murderous intent as he brought it up to point at her before Dark Blizzaga shot out. Yang shot a pair of Firagas at the first two projectiles, but the third came in too quickly and slammed into her outstretched left hand. She screamed and her semblance picked up. Eyes became red, the fur all over her body ignited, and the ice gave way.

OJ stopped for a moment, genuinely surprised. "Looks like this world is a good one for you," he observed, unsure of what to do with that information for a moment as it forced him to change his plans. Yang capitalized on this moment, rushing forward with her left hand trailing through the dirt. As she got close she threw her fist up, sending dirt flying towards the cat's eyes. A burst of Aero and a swing of the Keyblade caused the dirt cloud to vanish, but Yang continued with her assault. Her fists flashed upward, passing by the Keyblade wielder's stomach as he dodged, a look of effort on his feline features. He lashed out with his knee as she overextended, catching the rabbit in the face. Yang's vision turned into flashing stars and she stumbled backwards. OJ spun and brought the same foot around, slamming it into her head. She crashed through the wall of the barn, and what little remained of the building crashed down as its last supports shattered. Yang threw her hands up, a flash of a Reflect wall expanding. It hit before Jaune or Mercury could be sure she had successfully saved herself.

OJ turned to the pair, now struggling to their feet. He pulled his right hand and leg back, then raised his empty left hand to them. He barely had time to blink before Jaune was on him again, Mercury at full speed trailing a distance behind him. Keyblade met Keyblade in a flash of sparks, white and black cascading through the air. Jaune brought the locked Keyblades around so their tips hit the ground, then rushed forward with his shoulder, planting it firmly in OJ's chest. The cat was forced backwards, a look of surprise on his face. Mercury jumped over Jaune, lashing out with his left foot and a Gravity spell. OJ brought the Keyblade up and slapped the attack away, sending the spell spiraling towards a tree and flattening it like a pancake. OJ's other hand came up and grasped the assassin's right ankle, then swung him like a bat at Jaune. Jaune ducked beneath the attack, barely managing to avoid Mercury's head, and shot forward. Keyblades clashed again and Mercury was tossed away, crashing through rubble until he collided with an injured but conscious Yang.

"We need to get the Ship ready to leave," Yang said, grumbling as she pushed wood and iron off of her. She groaned and pushed up to her feet, ignoring a piece of rebar sticking out from her gut. The bleeding wasn't stopping; her Aura – much like Mercury's own, he noted – was depleted. He tried to push up as well, but quickly found himself face planted onto the ground. When he looked back, it was obvious why: his right ankle was warped, the metal of his prosthesis crushed in the shape of OJ's fist.

"He wanted us out of this fight," Mercury realized after a moment of glaring at his ankle. He turned his head to the fading Yang. His eyes widened and he pushed himself across the ground. "Get the Gummi Ship here now, Goldilocks! Now!"

Yang came to the same realization. "We're sitting ducks," she hoarsely whispered. She glanced over at Jaune and OJ, pushing against one another, snarling, arguing. But the cat's attention was divided, glancing occasionally at the pair of defeated warriors. She pulled out her scroll, thankfully undamaged, and called the Gummi Ship. Bright green light appeared on the ground near the edge of the rubble, waiting to pull them into the ship and stabilize their wounds.

OJ shoved Jaune back. "Well, I guess you can choose," OJ hissed. "Get that trinket to Sora, give it to me, or..." His left hand shot out towards Mercury and Yang, and a Dark Firaga sprang into being, shooting towards them. The sheer strength of the attack would annihilate them both.

Jaune didn't even have to think about this decision. He dove in front of the attack, and the explosion slammed into his chest. He screamed in pain as the fire surrounded him, burning at his Aura and biting at his flesh. He hit the ground and rolled through the remains of the barn until he came to a sudden stop a few feet from Yang and Mercury. Jaune heaved a heavy grunt and slammed the tip of the Animal Accord into the ground, using the weapon to push himself to his feet. "Who... hits a dog?" he wondered aloud.

OJ ignored the question. "That was disappointing, Jaune. Mercury has been treating you like he treated Pyrrha," he sighed, slowly advancing towards his doppelganger. Jaune snarled and readied to fight, ignoring the dangerously low levels of his Aura. Yang was pulling weakly at his sweatshirt, trying to get him to follow her. He ignored the pull. Even if he went, even if they all went, OJ would just move fast enough to get between them and the portal. They were fighting a losing battle, but it needed to be fought anyways.

"Unlike you, I know something important about Mercury and Emerald," Jaune explained coolly. He fixed his grip on Animal Accord and took a deep breath to steady himself. "They've been trying. They're good people, underneath it all. Unlike you."

"Then they're also unlike you, Jaune," OJ said simply as he reached them. He snarled and raised the Kingdom Key D above his head, his black Aura flowing into the weapon. His semblance would make this attack unblockable, and then he could just take all three of them away. Yang and Mercury to be slaves, Jaune to become his true self. The blade came down.

Jaune roared, the sound echoing of defiance, and brought his Keyblade up. There was a bright flash of Light... and the two stood with their Keyblades locked against one another. Jaune pushed, trying desperately to overcome his mirror.

And then OJ leaped back, Keyblade vanishing. He smirked at the confused Keyblade wielder and his friends. "Then take it to Sora," he said, a dark laugh escaping his voice. "It will be so much more fun to take it from you." And with that, he summoned another Aero, this one blasting the trio away and into the portal of their Ship.

It was only when the light vanished that OJ let his fear run through him.

"What the hell was that!?" he snapped to himself, glaring down at his palm. His Semblance, it hadn't worked. Why hadn't it worked!? His Keyblade should have passed through Jaune's like a hot sword through butter, so why the hell didn't it? He tossed his hand out to the side, summoning a corridor of Darkness. This brought up a whole new set of questions and concerns. If Jaune could nullify his Semblance then... then his plans needed to change.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Jaune was holding Yang down, trying to keep her still in the cockpit of the Gummi Ship. "Why'd he let us go?" Mercury asked, staring out of the ship at the world glistening below. He wasn't really seeing it, instead just OJ. His cruel laughter in Merc's ears. He had wanted them to escape, afraid of his power. He had -

"We can wonder that later, for now we have to heal Yang!" Jaune snapped, drawing Merc out of his own thoughts. He pushed the now human woman's arms down. "OJ's last attack hurt her too much. We have to take the rebar out and use a Curaga spell if she's going to live. Which job is yours?"

The former assassin gulped, then hobbled over on his knees to the pipe. He wrapped his fingers around it and nodded.

"Okay. On three. One, two... Three!" Jaune commanded. Mercury pulled up as fluidly as he could, flinching after it had left Yang's body and her scream of pain filled the cockpit. At the same time, Jaune's Animal Accord rose above their heads and flashed with green light, filling the entire ship. Yang's screaming continued, though it continued to drop in intensity. After a few minutes, it finally ended. The blonde's head drooped to the side, eyes shut and breathing shallow. Jaune stood up slowly, wobbling in exhaustion before dropping into one of the chairs, Keyblade vanishing. "Okay. She's safe." The blonde shook his head and stood up again, ignoring his tunneling vision as he walked over to Mercury. "Let's get you into a chair and get home."

Mercury stared up at Jaune's outstretched hand, then sighed and took it. The Keyblade wielder heaved and pulled Mercury's arm over his shoulder, supporting most of his wait before dropping him in a chair. Jaune took a few deep breaths, then bent down and lifted Yang in a bridal carry, softly placing her in a chair and buckling her. He took his place in the pilot's chair and let his head rest against the back of the chair for a few moments, exhaustion evident in the purple rings around his eyes and the sweat dripping from his hairline. Merc watched him for a few moments, thinking. Finally: "Thanks," he muttered half under his breath.

Jaune turned his head to Mercury and opened one eye. "Wha?"

Mercury sighed, then more clearly repeated. "Thanks. For, you know, saving me back there. It looked like it kind of hurt."

Jaune laughed. "Kinda," he agreed. He shut his eye and rested against the chair again. "But what else was I going to do, let you and Yang die? Please, Ruby and Emerald would never let me hear the end of that. It would be a real _gem_ of a time, dealing with them." Yang laughed in her sleep.

Mercury sighed and decided to ignore the bad joke. "Look, I... I'm sorry how I've been treating you, Jaune. It... it wasn't right." He stared down at his knees and said, "It's just... every time I looked at you, I saw OJ. Dismantling us, toying with us... taking Emerald. I felt like I was looking at him."

Jaune sighed and pushed himself up, buckling and grabbing the wheel. "Imagine wearing his face," he pointed out sadly. "Imagine being him."

Mercury stared out the cockpit and buckled up. Jaune pulled up on the controls and the ship twirled away from Zootopia, eyes heavy as he angled the ship towards Remnant. All in all, this was a... victory, Jaune supposed. They had taken the Night Howler's core, one of the five items needed to pierce the wall between timelines. A key part of OJ's plan, and they had taken it from him... because he had basically given it to them. Well, until they found out why, Jaune would take whatever victory he could get. Chalk that one up in the win column.

"Jaune, you aren't him," Mercury stated, turning away from the cockpit window. "He attacked two defenseless enemies just to get to you. Meanwhile you took a fireball to the face for us." He held his fist out to Jaune. "You're a good guy, Buddy."

Jaune glanced over, surprised by what he was seeing. Then, he grinned. "Thanks, Man." He let his fist collide with Mercury's. "Let's get home."

"Are we there yet?" Yang asked,voice barely more than a whisper. She opened one eye and grinned at Mercury's pained groan. "Not too shabby, Good Boy."

"If I wasn't unbelievably relieved you woke up, I'd be mad," Jaune said, smiling softly over at Yang. "But I'm so happy I'll the 'are we there yets' slide until we get back."

Yang grinned. "In that case... Are we there yet?" she asked, earning an even wider smile from Jaune.

Mercury groaned again. Why couldn't she have just stayed unconscious?


	25. Happy Birthday

**AN: Finally! Hey everybody, how are you?**

 **I'm good. Super excited for Kingdom Hearts 3 next week. Can't push it back now, can they? God, I hope not at least. Ugh, sounds like something they might do.**

 **In all honesty, I'm super excited. It looks great and I'm so excited to see Sora finally have his confrontation with Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, Xehanort, and Xehanort. I feel like we're finally getting to the Heart of the conflict.**

 **Bad puns being pushed to the side now, it's time for responses.**

 **To Gamelover41592: I always want the chapter title to be a fun fit for the chapter in more than one way, so I'm glad the last chapter was a great fit. I hope this chapter, even if it's less action oriented, is awesome too!**

 **To Chretner: Good to hear from you again. I understand your thoughts on OJ, but as I start to communicate more in this chapter, it really comes down to the increasing differences between Jaune and OJ that he ran away. I had a lot of fun writing the Judy fight, so I'm glad you liked it. My DnD is going well, thanks for asking. Finally got enough schedules aligned to actually play again. They finally completed a section of the adventure they'd been on for months. I've never co-DM'd before, but it sounds nice. Not being completely in charge of everything, but still getting to craft the story. Good luck getting them into the Kingdom Hearts game. Thanks for the offer, but you're right; the Australia time difference would be rough.**

 **Anyways, enjoy! This chapter is less action oriented, but it has a pretty good OJ fight in the middle and important groundwork for the endgame.**

 _ **Chapter 25: Happy Birthday**_

The team stood together with Sora and Ruby, watching as the tiny blue Core was placed into its safe in the Vault of the Keyblade Academy by onetime headmaster Ozpin. The old man gingerly used both hands to place the relic in a small bowl within the dense box, then slammed the door shut. He walked over to Sora outside of the room and nodded. The Keyblade Master nodded back, then raised the Master Keeper and channeled his energy through it. There was a bright flash, and a series of walls of Light erupted into being, flashing outward concentrically around the safe in a sphere. Eventually, the last wall blinked into being just within the doorway, glowing to warn away any that would try and steal from this place. "Do you think that will be enough walls, Sora?" Ozpin inquired dryly, one eyebrow raised.

The Keyblade Master nodded. "I don't want to take any chances, Oz. He got through one of my walls before he had Mickey's Keyblade. Now that he has it, I don't want to take any risks," he explained. "And once Genie gets here, he'll make it harder to even think about getting in there."

"It's the end of the world. Sora's being the serious one," Ruby muttered to her sister, earning a soft chuckle. Ruby gave Yang a side hug. "I'm so happy you could come home for your birthday."

"Well, I thought it wouldn't be for another few weeks, but that makes it even cooler!" Yang said, returning the hug. This close she could notice her sister was a lot less tired looking, like she hadn't been to Beacon in a few days. "I guess you can say that I'm _Yang for my age!_ Eh? Yang – Young? Eh? Eh?" She began to elbow her sister in the ribs to elicit a response. "Eh? Eh?"

Jaune snorted, causing Ruby and Sora to turn and glare at him with surprise. Ruby turned over to her sister and stopped hugging her. "You've corrupted him," she said, horror running through her silver eyes. She rushed over to Jaune. "Please, you have to snap out of it!" She began slapping the blonde across the face, causing him to yelp over and over.

"Miss Rose, please," Ozpin said after the third slap. He caught her wrist and cast an exasperated glance over his glasses. "Can this not wait until _after_ they have delivered their report." He released Ruby's arm.

"Well..." Ruby groaned. She sighed and nodded, then threw her left hand straight up and shouted as heroically as she could manage, "But then we have to save him from this terrible curse, even if it kills us!"

Sora crossed his arms and glanced between Yang, Jaune, and Mercury. "So, what exactly happened that you were able to get this?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. He glanced at each of them sympathetically. "You guys were in bad shape when you got back, so it couldn't have been easy."

"You can say that again," Yang said with a grimace. She leaned against the wall and shook her head. "We thought Zootopia was an easy world, but it was an animal this time around." She grinned slightly at her own joke.

"They seem to be a very Light world," Jaune explained after a moment of silence. "Their police were unprepared for normal threats. So the Heartless there last time were weaker than other places." He looked over at Ozpin. "But when we got there, it was like Darkness had almost completely enveloped the world. Its people were at each others throats, basically about to start a war."

Yang picked up again. "The Heartless were way stronger than they used to be, and the people they corrupted were even stronger than that. They were tossing us around like we were all Ruby's size," she said, patting her waif-like sister on the head.

"We nearly got killed by a bunny rabbit," Mercury explained.

Yang stopped patting her increasingly annoyed sister's head and turned to glare at Mercury. "What you got against bunny rabbits, Pussycat?"

Sora turned to Jaune, confused. "Does this... does this make sense to you?"

Jaune laughed nervously and said, "Yeah, yeah it does." He scratched the back of his head. He decided to try and move on from this topic before they started pointing out his puppy dog status. "The Core over there was the center of a Heartless, one that someone was using to try and ignite that war on Zootopia. The closer the war got, the stronger it was. It was able to give people powerful abilities of Darkness, at the cost of their self control. They tried to kill anything around them. In fact, it got one of our friends from there."

Ruby gasped. "Are they all right?"

"That's the first good news we've got," Mercury said, smiling with relief. "Turns out you can break free of the thing's control, if someone you care about enough is able to get through to you."

Ozpin nodded in understanding. "Which gives you hope for rescuing Miss Sustrai," he deduced. He placed a hand on Mercury's shoulder. "I have little doubt that, if you find the Light that our enemy has locked within her, she will be freed."

"Never thought I'd say 'Thanks, Ozpin,'" Mercury muttered, earning a smile from the former Headmaster.

"Anyways, you should have seen our fight with this Heartless! It was so powerful, we thought we'd die. We gave it some of this!" Yang lashed out with her fist. "Then one of these!" She leaped in the air and pile-drived the ground. "And then, it threw Jaune through a wall!" She bounced to her feet. "Right into the Keyhole!"

Sora's face went blank. "You found a Keyhole?" He asked, awestruck. He walked over to Jaune and looked him directly in the eyes. "Did you keep it safe?" He began shaking Jaune by the shoulders. "Did you?"

"Would – we – be – alive – if – we – hadn't?" Jaune asked between each shake.

Sora stopped shaking him. "Uh... Probably not, now that I think about it," he said. He let go of Jaune with a sheepish grin and a bright red blush. "Whoops..."

"We managed to kill the Heartless and then I locked the Keyhole," Jaune said, wobbling as his balance returned after being shaken so violently. He shook his head and his vision steadied.

"Yep. He saved the world," Mercury said, patting his friend on the back. "Or one of them, at least."

"But if you won, how did you guys get so hurt?" Ruby asked. She looked over at her sister, who now looked no worse for wear. "Yang, when you got back you looked like you'd lost a lot of blood."

"Zootopia's Heartless had worn us down a lot," Yang began. She sighed and shook her head in disappointment. "So when OJ showed up, we were easy pickings."

The three glanced at the ground, feeling ashamed. "We couldn't lay a finger on him when he was being serious," Jaune growled, fists clenching tight enough that his nails began digging into his palms. He fought off the desire to slam his fist into something or someone. "I... I couldn't do anything to stop him."

Sora, Ruby, and Ozpin remained quiet and unsure of what to say. Yang decided to speak up; someone had to get this topic finished, after all. "OJ ambushed us when we were leaving. He didn't try his hardest and the three of us still got taken apart. He crushed Mercury's leg with his bare hand, and impaled me on a steel pipe. He didn't use his Semblance on us." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "He attacked Jaune head on, one on one, then laughed at us and let us go the moment he and Jaune crossed blades."

Ozpin frowned. "But you had the Core. Why would he not take it from you if he could defeat the three of you so easily?" he wondered aloud. Oz tapped his cane on the ground like a metronome to the time of his thoughts.

"What is it, Oz?" Sora asked.

Ozpin's cane stopped tapping. "Later. For now, we should go over the plan," he responded simply. He turned to Ruby. "It was your plan, Miss Rose. Perhaps you should start."

Ruby tossed the man a thumbs up, then turned back to the team. She glanced at Mercury before starting, a sympathetic look on her features before she steadied herself and focused on the task at hand, trying her best to look serious. Jaune and Yang knew that if this was the face her students got there was no way they took her seriously. "So, once I heard about what happened to Emerald, I knew OJ had something we didn't. He can go after two relics at once," she explained, putting her hands on her hips. "The problem so far is that we've only been sending one team out to look for these things. You three."

"We're not good enough?" Mercury growled, annoyed. He got a slap across the back of his head from Yang.

"Listen," she snarled, red eyes adding to the terror she struck in him. Mercury shut up.

Ruby grinned. "Thanks, Sis!" she shouted happily. She coughed upon seeing Ozpin's raised eyebrow and continued to act business like. "And that's not what I meant. You're good enough. You guys got the Core here. I think that proves it. But only for one place at a time. You can't be everywhere." An excited grin began to creep onto her face. "And then I got an idea. Me and Sora will go out with you guys to check out two worlds at a time! Then when we've found everything, the trap will be set!"

Jaune rolled his eyes. "You just wanted to be alone in a ship with Sora for... a..." He trailed off as he saw that Yang's hair was so bright that it was impossible to look at directly, forming a halo of flames from which only a pair of glowing red eyes could be seen.

Sora carefully and cautiously stepped back and to the side, putting Ruby between himself and Yang. "It – it's not what you think!" he squeaked out nervously. "I, uh... I don't even want to be alone with Ruby like that!" Now Ruby was glaring at him, her silver eyes awash with enraged power. Sora squeaked again, realizing his mistake. "Th-that's not what I meant! Rubes, I – I totally want to be around you!"

"I'M CHOOSING TEAMS! RUBY WILL NOT GO WITH SORA!" Yang screamed, advancing on Sora with both weapons readied. Ruby just... stepped out of her way.

Yang was only stopped from attempting murder by Ozpin's cane entering her path. "Yes, your uncle said as much when Miss Rose explained her idea to us all over Scroll," he said simply. "The decision was already made to separate them. If only to preserve Sora's health, if not his life." The cane dropped. "Sora has already requested travel to Gaia, while Miss Rose believes a trip to Bridge to Aincrad may be worth her time. That ensures an experienced Keyblade Master travels with both groups." The cane tapped on the ground at the feet of Yang, Jaune, then Mercury. "You may decide with whom you wish to travel."

"I've got unfinished business with Sephiroth," Yang snarled before anyone else could say anything, cracking her fists. She turned to her sister. "Sorry, Rubes. We can have a sisters buttkicking fest another time."

"I'm going to head to Aincrad," Mercury said after a moment of silence, his voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. "That's where Em's Darkness woke up, so it's the place a mind controlled, Dark version of her is heading."

"Which means I'm heading there, too!" There was a blue explosion of smoke, and the Genie popped into the hallway. He put his arm around Merc's shoulder. "Hey there, Silver, old buddy old pal! It's been too long!"

"Blue. It _has_ been too long," Mercury said, smiling despite himself. He put his arm around Genie's shoulder, too. "There's no one I'd rather have looking for Em with me."

"Aw, you flatterer," Genie said, taking on the shape of a blonde woman with a bright necklace. "Flattery will get you everywhere."

"Okay," Mercury groaned. He shoved the Genie away, and the magical being returned to his normal form. "How are you planning to come to Aincrad with us?"

"Well, with my phenomenal, nearly cosmic powers, I thought I would just go as -" he snapped his fingers and was replaced with a thin, lanky, blue dog with a long black tail and floppy black ears. "Pluto! You can pretend I'm a companion creature!"

Mercury crouched down and scratched Genie behind the ears, causing the dog to bark enthusiastically. "Well, it's not the worst idea you've ever had."

"But you guys will have to do the heavy lifting. I'm a wish granter, not a fighter," Genie explained before tossing a grin to Sora. "But I'm good help, right?"

"Amazing help," Sora agreed from behind Ozpin, who was now placed between him and Yang.

Jaune walked up and put his hand on Yang's shoulder. "Where you go, I go. I promised I'd be there every time we found your mom, and I'm not stopping now." Her eyes turned lilac and she turned to Jaune, now giving her a soft smile. He chuckled nervously and joked, "Besides, I'd probably hurt myself without you watching my back."

She smiled back. "Probably," she agreed. She grabbed the hand on her shoulder. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and she turned away, rubbing at them with her sleeve. "Ugh, must have let the ol' Semblance burn too much. My eyes are all dry."

Jaune blinked and put his hand on her shoulder again, fretting over his partner. "Really? Well, my room here is full of different stuff my mom keeps sending me. I have like forty things of eyedrops in there cause she's worried about me being so close to Vacuo's deserts."

Yang laughed and turned around, all evidence she had even been close to crying hidden from Jaune on her sleeve. She put her other hand on his shoulder. "If someone told me the loser that barfed on my shoes would be one of the best people I would know..." she began before trailing off. She pulled him suddenly into a hug so tight Jaune's eyes began to bulge, placing her chin on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're with me."

Jaune slowly returned her hug, hands wrapping around her waist. Until a red Keyblade slammed into his head. "Too close to my sister!" Ruby shouted as he fell face first into the ground.

Jaune groaned and glared up at Ruby. " _Ow_ ," he growled pointedly as he pushed himself up and rubbed his head.

"Sorry, I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about," Ruby said, rubbing the back of her head as her Keyblade vanished. She looked at the half-annoyed and half-amused Yang. "I, uh... I don't see the appeal, Yang."

"Really? I think it's a hit!"

 _ **R W B Y**_

OJ roared in rage as he exited the Corridor of Darkness, stomping up to a huge tree just outside of the wall of energy he had erected around the cabin to prevent Grimm or Heartless from getting close. The Kingdom Key D flashed into his hand, its blade and handle tinged with more rust and Darkness than ever. He roared again and brought the Keyblade around with one hand, effortless carving through the tree as wide as he was tall. The tree stood where it was for a moment, then slowly tipped over towards the cabin. The wall intercepted the tree and it bounced off, twisting and crashing into the ground with a massive thud. OJ stared at the destroyed tree as, slowly, Grimm approached, attracted by his rage. He slowly turned one glowing, yellow eye on the nearest creature, a young Beowolf. OJ's grip on the Keyblade tightened and he vanished, reappearing behind the Grimm just as it exploded into a cloud of Black Dust. He panted, more with rage than with any semblance of exertion.

 _How?_ He snarled inwardly as he turned on the next Grimm, a small and lightly armored Boarbatusk. OJ raised his off hand and a streak of black electricity fried the Grimm into non-existence. _How the Dust did he block me? How did he block my attack!?_ He rushed forward, ducking beneath another Beowolf's slashing claw to bury the Keyblade in its head, shattering its bone plate and Dusting it within seconds. He threw the Keyblade straight ahead without a moment's pause, and the Keyblade exploded with an aura of Darkness as it burned through a tree's core and the Death Stalker behind it. The tree exploded as blackened ice spread throughout its core, sending tiny needles of wood all around and through the bodies of the surrounding Grimm and the Shadows that had begun to congregate. Some vanished as the needles pierced heads or hearts, while others screeched in pain as the wood dug shallow cuts all over their bodies.

The Keyblade returned to OJ's hand. "How!?" he screamed at the forest before charging the enemies. Three Beowolves fell in quick succesion before he turned and launched a Blizzaga into the crowd of monsters. Ice exploded, freezing or entirely annihilating the weakest Grimm and Heartless, leaving only the newcomers – a Goliath Grimm and a Behemoth Heartless. They were advancing on him with little damage, thus far, as they had been outside of his attacks' range until now. He vanished again, reappearing above the two monsters just as their attacks would have hit. Massive bursts of electricity and thrown trees hit the ground where he had stood just moments earlier, the energy wasted. He aimed the Kingdom Key D in front of him and channeled Darkness through it, generating massive, spiked chains that spiraled around the two creatures of Darkness. They slammed into one another and roared, loud and low noises that shook bone and tree alike. As he fell, OJ yanked up with the Keyblade and the chains followed suit, the spikes tearing at the flesh of the creatures as it yanked them up and slammed them into one another. As they reached their apex and he touched the ground he dismissed the chains; he turned and aimed the Kingdom Key D at the two massive creatures plummeting like comets towards him. He turned the weapon as if turning a lock, and snapped, "Gravity!"

A black dome covered the ground directly beneath the monsters and pulled them down even faster, causing the two comets to slam into the ground directly in front of OJ, who lazily flicked the Keyblade out to the side as he summoned a Reflega that protected him from harm. The monsters were vaporized on impact, and the ground did little better. Dirt exploded out from the point of impact, displaced from the sudden impulse of the mass hitting the ground. It ballooned upward, then mushroomed out above him. Dirt and shards of pine tree floated down and created a massive cloud that slowly began to fill the huge crater around OJ, a crater that ended abruptly at the wall erected around the cabin and at the small circle of grass around OJ. "How did Jaune, that weak little... _how_ did he do that?"

It made no sense. Weakened by that idiotic belief that his 'friends' weren't just using him. By the Light that he clung to despite the power of Darkness. How in the name of Hell could _Jaune Arc_ , barely a Keyblade Wielder, block his attack? He dismissed the Keyblade and snarled at the sparks left behind by the weapon. Was it the reason? That the Kingdom Key wouldn't do it to its own kind? For some reason he doubted that. The Kingdom Key enhanced things that its wielder already had, and he'd been able to pass through Sora's Kingdom Key with his No Name. The Kingdom Key wasn't special, not in that way at least.

But the worst part about all of this was that he had run from Jaune like a coward. He'd run, as if he hadn't even moved on from being that person. That sad, quiet, weak, stupid Jaune Arc that... that let himself get shoved into a locker and watched Pyrrha die. That let himself get blackmailed by Cardin Winchester. That faked his transcripts. That disappointed his family so much they basically told him he would never amount to anything. But the moment that something surprised him, he scurried away back into his old habits. The habits of a coward.

He turned towards the cabin and narrowed his eyes. If that was the case, he was going to give them a nasty surprise in return. And he would get stronger. He would figure out this fluke that Jaune Arc had used to stop his Semblance. And then he would kill the woman Jaune Arc cared about the most, right in front of him. Once he murdered that bimbo –

Murdering Yang. That was the answer. Not just to the Yang issue, but to the numbers issue. When the time came, and he had all of the relics needed to pierce the barrier to the next World, there would be a fight. Oh, he could summon enough Heartless to keep them busy for a while, but he already knew how it would play out. Sora would lead the battle with his _friends_ , and leave Jaune behind. They would likely have some sort of army on their side. Robots, huntsmen, maybe even students at his little _Keyblade Academy_ if he managed to actually find any. Summon enough strong Heartless and he might be able to get rid of a few of Sora's friends. But if he had a powerful ally to take with him, one whom he could offer something they desired very much in the next World, then many of them could be distracted. Killed, even. And murdering Yang was the answer.

All he had to do was find Morrigan.

OJ turned his gaze to the cabin and slowly grinned. Until then, he had another guest to deal with. The Keyblade appeared in his hand once more. "Time for our next lesson, Emerald," he shouted at the cabin. He cast a glance at Beacon Academy in the distance. "I have a feeling that the test is coming sooner rather than later."

 _ **R W B Y**_

Jaune sat on the edge of his bed in the Keyblade Academy, staring at the mirror on the other side of the room. He'd changed into new clothes, ones he had especially for Yang's birthday. He had on a gray sweatshirt material blazer over a plain white t-shirt. He had a pair of black jeans on held up by a yellow and white checkerboard belt that matched his shoes. On a table nearby were a pair of glasses that would interfere with cameras that looked at him – hopefully they fooled people that would recognize one of Remnant's Most Wanted, too. Apparently Junior's club was under new management, so they were going to head there with Yang and swap stories about destroying the place as they – minus the juice box buddies Sora and Ruby – had a few drinks. Jaune raised an eyebrow and suddenly wondered how old Sora and Ruby were at this point. In Remnant time, they had to be approaching twenty, especially since Yang was turning twenty-two. The idea struck him as he realized that _he_ was almost twenty-two. It had been about four years since he'd stepped onto Beacon's campus for the first time. It felt like a lifetime ago, now. He'd fought Grimm, witches, ancient Keyblade Masters, Heartless, and gone to jail since then. He'd been a hero and a villain and an astronaut... and he was barely into his second decade of life.

He heard footsteps outside his room, a trio of people running down the hallway. Keyblade students that Qrow had found while on leave in Atlas. They were orphans, and all of them kids. A ten year old blonde and his two five year old friends he watched, a blue haired girl and a brunette boy. If Sora managed to stop OJ, those kids might grow up to be something. Jaune groaned and fell back onto his bed. _If. 'If'_ because the whole plan hinged on him being able to save more of the relics.

He shot up to a sitting position when three knocks echoed from his door. "Uh, come in!" he shouted, getting up and smoothing his clothes. The door slowly opened and a man walked in, shutting it behind him. "Mister Arc, I had been hoping we could speak before you left," Ozpin said as he came through the door, a mug of coffee in one hand. He nodded his head at the Keyblade Wielder.

Taking the hint, Jaune jolted to his feet. "Uh, right. You can sit," he mumbled, gesturing at the table and chairs nearby. Ozpin smiled and nodded again before taking a seat, his creaking oints and groan barely noticeable.

Jaune walked over and took the chair on the other side of the small table. "So, uh, what it you – what is it you wanted to talk about, Headmas – Er, Professor Ozpin?"

Ozpin took a drink of his coffee and raised an eyebrow at the young man. "Are you quite alright, Mister Arc? I am not here to deliver bad news," he explained simply. He placed his mug on the table and wrapped both hands around it, warming his joints.

"But, uh, then why are you here?" Jaune wondered, confused.

Ozpin stared at him for a moment, then laughed once, an amused by dry noise. He shook his head and wondered, "Have I delivered enough bad news that you cannot imagine me doing anything else?" He laughed again.

"No! I mean, yeah, but..." Jaune groaned and let his head hit the table. "What is it, Professor?"

Ozpin smiled at the flustered Arc. "I'll... keep this brief," he said first. He shifted in his seat. "Mister Arc, what _exactly_ happened when OJ retreated?"

Jaune glanced up. And sighed. He didn't want to think about this... But Ozpin was asking, in person. It was kind of hard to turn his question away. "He'd knocked Mercury and Yang out of the fight. He launched a fireball at them and I took the hit. He gloated about killing Yang and Merc, then attacked. He let me block it, then he taunted us and got rid of us."

Ozpin considered the story with a frown, one hand on his chin. He took another drink, then put it down on the table again. "Right before he attacked, what happened? When he was gloating, what exactly do you remember?"

Jaune shrugged. " I mean..." He shut his eyes and thought backwards. "Uh, he... He... raised his Keyblade and it... he started channeling his Aura into it." Jaune frowned, but kept his eyes shut. "But that's what he did when he was fighting Sora and used his Semblance."

"That was what I expected," Ozpin said firmly. Jaune's eyes opened, already asking the question 'What?'

Ozpin cleared his throat and held up his open hands. "The Semblance is a reflection of what one's Heart contains. Sora's would therefore be the ability to... draw strength from others, and in turn amplify their strength. Ruby's is to reach a villain first so she could be a hero. Yang's is to take what life throws at her, and so on. But, I as much as that is true, there is a genetic aspect to Semblances, as well. For instance, the Schnee family." Ozpin motioned with his head at his hands. "You and OJ, Mister Arc, are like these hands."

Jaune stared at the two rough palms, then looked up at Ozpin. "Uh... calloused?"

Ozpin narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. " _Mirror images_ ," Ozpin explained. "Built exactly the same, with many of the same experiences. But you -" he held up his right hand. " – and him -" Ozpin shook his left hand. "- are opposites nonetheless."

Jaune stared at him, mouth open and a confused look in his eyes.

Ozpin sighed. "His Semblance, as he understands it, is to imbue his Aura into items or individuals, granting them the ability to bypass defenses. It's an incredibly offensive ability, fit for someone willing to kill anyone for his goals." He shut his left hand and let it hit the ground. He turned his gaze to his right hand and said, "On the other hand -" He glared at Jaune as he snickered. "- you were able to block his Semblance."

Jaune jolted in his seat as he finally began to hear what Ozpin was saying. "Wait, so I..."

Ozpin nodded. "You are his opposite, but you are built from the same parts. You have an entire world to protect, and people that you desperately want to shield from evil. A Semblance that would be highly defensive. Tell me, Mister Arc, have you ever deflected a blow so powerful that it should have annihilated you?"

Jaune felt lost. What was he supposed to do? For all of Ozpin's flowery language, the truth came down to the fact that they were built from the same parts. Heart, Body, Soul, all the same. Mirror images weren't all that different. They were almost the same. "I have," Jaune said quietly. "Yeah. There was this giant Heartless, and it shot a Firaga so big it should've vaporized me. But I blocked it. I did it, and it flew away." He shook his head. "So, I have his Semblance?"

Ozpin shut his right hand and lowered it next to the other. "It would appear so, though what its limits might be, I am unsure."

Jaune leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. He had to tell Yang – she deserved to know. He trusted her to watch out for him. And his parents should know, in case OJ ever came after them. They'd have to call him in. He had already planned to go home, to answer his mom's questions about OJ before Yang's party, and Yang had wanted to tag along. For some reason. "I believe, Mister Arc, that you are the key to defeating OJ. Your ability to infuse your Aura may be the only thing that can counteract his own ability to do so."

 _ **R W B Y**_

"You know, I said this last time, but this time is your birthday. You _really_ didn't have to come with me if you didn't want to," Jaune told Yang as they waited for his parents to open the door and let them in. He raised his hand to touch her shoulder appreciatively, but thought better of it and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So... thanks for doing it, anyways."

Yang glanced over at Jaune and laughed. "Why wouldn't I come? Your parents love me!" Her yellow and black leather jacket squeaked as she crossed her arms over her orange shirt. Her rubberized black jeans glistened as she leaned into the sun to shove Jaune with her shoulder."And I can tell your dad all about Puppy Jaune, too!"

Jaune laughed nervously. "Oh, yeah... great," he muttered dryly. He gave Yang a thumbs up. "That's _just_ what I was hoping to hear."

"Ah, I'm just kidding, Jaune." Yang slapped his back, then grabbed hold of his arm and shook it. "I wouldn't tell your parents about that!"

"No, just everyone else," Jaune pointed out to Yang's unashamed grin. He shrugged. "Whatever. At least I'm not a black cat."

Yang laughed. "No wonder OJ is such bad luck," she agreed with a smirk. "And kind of _catty_!"

The two grinned at each other as the door opened. Marz glanced between her son and Yang. "Am I interrupting?" Their heads snapped to her.

"Mom!" Jaune said hurriedly. He hesitated for a moment, then rushed forward and hugged her tight. "Mom, I... I'm sorry I..."

Marzenna sighed and wrapped her arms around her son. "I know, Jauney. I know." She let go and pushed off of him slightly. "Why don't we all head inside? Your father is waiting for us, and I think we both have... questions."

Jaune nodded and let his mother walk in, though he remained awkwardly where he was. Yang frowned behind him, feeling bad for him. So she put a grin on her face and grabbed hold of his wrist, yanking him in behind her. "C'mon, Jauney, you're too slow!"

Jaune stumbled after his partner, through his own family home, tumbling past the kitchen and into the living room where his father sat with his mother on the couch, an ice Dust air conditioner cooling the hot August air. Argent smiled and stood up to greet the two. "It's good to see you again," he said, grabbing hold of his son in a tight hug. He let go after a moment and turned to Yang. "You've been keeping him out of trouble, right?"

"Obviously," she responded before looking over at Jaune. She punched him the shoulder and he tumbled into the nearest chair. "But he's kept me out of trouble, too."

Argent smiled softly. "That's what I like to hear," he said before wrapping Yang in a hug, too. He let go an patted her shoulder. "Now, if only Jauney could find a nice girl like you."

Jaune choked in his chair while Yang laughed. "That's what OJ is most angry about," she said.

Marz raised an eyebrow. "So you two _are_ together?"

It was Yang's turn to choke and Jaune's to laugh. "No, Mom," Jaune explained between chuckles. He motioned at Yang who was now staring at her boots with red cheeks. "She's into guys that are confident."

"Is my baby not confident?" Marz asked, leaning forward worrieldy. "I told you that you just need to be confident to make friends. It's great for -"

Jaune's face was as red as Yang's now. "Can we just get to your questions?" he asked quietly as his father made his way back to sit beside Marz. "Please?"

The married couple glanced at one another, an inquiring look on their faces. Finally, they turned back. "Okay, Jaune. You and Sora didn't tell me much about OJ, just that he wants to bring back Pyrrha at the cost of everything else. What exactly has he done, Son?" Argent asked, clasping his hand in his wife's.

Jaune took a deep breath. "He... he's from a different world," he explained slowly, making sure not to say anything that his mother couldn't hear, given the still confidential nature of other worlds. "He's a version of me that... fought against the person that got me to do bad things. When I let her control me, he broke out and fought her. But apparently that's how his world died. Remnant ended, and the only thing that survived was him – the other Jaune."

"But how?" Marzenna asked, causing everyone else in the room to exchange a look. She sighed in exasperation. "Something I'm not allowed to know about, then?"

Jaune didn't answer for a moment. "No," he finally admitted.

Yang picked up for Jaune, knowing he didn't want to talk about everything else OJ had done. Tricking them, hurting them. He blamed himself too much. "He found us not long after we started adventuring," Yang explained. "He tricked us into helping him find things he could use to do the same thing again and find a Pyrrha that's alive. When we found out, he tried to get Jaune to leave with him."

"He said no," Argent noted proudly.

Jaune didn't feel as proud, but he kept it in. He didn't want his parents to see how he felt. He knew what they'd say. "He tried to kill Yang when I told him no," he said simply. "And now every time we meet, he goes after her first." Jaune looked over at Yang in the seat beside him, hiding his guilt as best he could. His parents didn't see it, but she could. "He thinks I've... 'betrayed' Pyrrha because of Yang. He's almost killed her a few times."

Yang put her hand on his arm, comforting him. "Hasn't done it yet," she assured him, earning a relieved smile in return.

"Why are you so ashamed of him?" his mother asked, and the relief vanished.

Argent stared at his son, and Jaune felt a bubble of anger rise. He'd told his father this, and he hadn't told them for Jaune? The anger quickly deflated, though. "He's me, Mom," he explained, eyes hitting the ground because he just couldn't bare to look at his mother. "When he offered me the chance to go with him, I almost did it. I feel a... a pull in my gut every time he does. He was better than me, and he couldn't escape the Darkness. Maybe I've done it for now, but –" He stopped speaking as he saw his mother's feet. She reached out with her right hand and pulled his head up, eyes meeting hers.

Marzenna knelt down to meet him face to face. "Mom, I almost killed everyone," Jaune said hollowly. "And I'm not exaggerating. I mean _everyone_ , everywhere. You guys, my sisters, Yang, Sora, Ruby, Ren, Nora..." He cut himself off before he could start rambling further down the list. "He didn't do that, but I did, Mom. If he's the bad guy here, how long until I fall into that role again?!"

"As if I'd let you," Yang said, her hand on his arm tightening. "You two are as different as cats and dogs."

Jaune laughed softly at that one. "She's right, Jauney," Marz said, leaning forward to hug her son. "He didn't have anyone to pull him back from the path he chose. The reason you'll never do it again is because you have us, and you have Yang. We'd never let you do that."

Jaune hugged his mom back. "Thanks, Mom," he muttered softly, holding her tight. After a moment, he cleared his throat and she pushed off of him. "I... I do have one more thing I need to tell all of you. It's something Ozpin told me."

"And what's the Wonderful Wizard have to say this time?" Argent wondered dryly.

"OJ and I, we have the same Semblance. Yang, it's why I was able to block his attack when we were... when he attacked us last time," Jaune explained to Yang. His gaze slowly fell to the ground once more.

She grinned in return. "Then we didn't escape. He ran away," she said triumphantly. She moved her hand from his arm and jabbed her index finger into his shoulder. "From you. And that just proves he's not you, Jaune. Maybe you'd have run before all this, but you stood there ready to die to save us."

Jaune smiled softly. "I... guess you're right," he said. He slowly turned back to Yang. "Though, when aren't you?"

"Only when you've got my back to figure it out."

Argent smiled and stood up. "We were about to have lunch. Would you both like to stay?"

Jaune and Yang traded a look. "We got time," they agreed as their stomachs rumbled.

 _ **R W B Y**_

A few hours after the drinks had stopped flowing and everyone's Auras had kicked their livers into overdrive, after the stories had all been traded, the club finally decided to kick out the crazy group of Huntsmen that were scaring away the entire clientele with their fights, use of Dust, and a redheaded girl with a hammer demanding more pancakes before slamming the hammer into the table, demolishing it. They didn't even serve pancakes. So now that the club was finally closed for the night, far earlier than it usually would be, the entire group exited the building. Yang was laughing loudly, hands in the air. "God, that was great!" she shouted, ignoring the screaming of the club's owner directed at them from behind. She turned around and glanced at all of her friends – her team, Jaune's team, Sora, and Mercury. "Especially when Nora started swinging from the hanging lights! You almost brought the roof down!"

Yang turned back to the street and froze.

"Oh, God, it's beautiful," she muttered, hands falling to her sides. Without any control over her actions, she slowly began to drift towards the motorcycle that was sitting in the street in front of her. It was mainly black, though there was a fiery yellow forming accents along the body. A large metal container was on the right side, different vials of Dust in a spinning tube near one end. The body of the bike curved out at the back past the second seat and beyond the rear wheel, forming a pair of stylized yellow flames. The tail light glowed, a solid red block above the back wheel. The wheels were spoke-less, held in place by magnetic Dust crystals that allowedc for increased speed and more powerful breaking. Yang went around to the front, admiring the large, twin cannons on either side of the front wheel before stopping on the headlight that rested just between two yellow stripes that trailed along the seat until they became the flames at the back; the light was in the shape of a flaming Heart. Yang's own emblem. She let her right hand rest on the hood before slowly turning to her friends. "Surprise, Yang!" Ruby shouted, bolting forward in a storm of petals and crashing into her sister. Her arms wrapped around Yang in a hug so tight that Yang knew even she couldn't match it "Do you like it? Please say you like it? If you don't like it, it was all Jaune's idea!"

"I love it, Rubes," Yang said, patting her sisters back.

"Yes!" Ruby shouted, pumping her fist.

"Great, now our gift looks lame," Sun muttered under his breath. Blake shot him a glare. "What? It's a custom battle bike! You really think magnetic boots compare?"

"You spent our budget without me!" Blake retorted angrily.

Weiss shook her head. "This is why we got her an experience," she said, gesturing between her and Neptune. "Two VIP tickets to the best spa in the four kingdoms."

"And cause I decided to not interfere in her picking," Neptune added.

Nora jumped up next, dragging Ren behind her. "We bought a lifetime supply of Cream de Fries!"

" _Creme de Fraises_ ," Ren corrected. "The main ingredient in a Strawberry Sunrise."

Yang glanced between them and the motorcycle. "I... don't know who the winner here is," she muttered under her breath. She glanced between them and the bike again. "It's... not coming to me easy."

"Well, maybe this will help," Sora said competitively. He moved around to the container on the side. "We all came up with the bike idea, but Jaune came up with this part by himself." He pressed one of a few buttons on a circle between the handles and beneath the windshield. The container sprung straight up and shot something out, until it drifted down to his hand. He caught it effortlessly, revealing a large red and black katana.

Jaune chuckled. "I, er... I realized your mom's weapon was on the Dragon Continent when she became a Heartless. Anything that got left behind was destroyed in the reconstruction, so I knew we couldn't find it. But when she comes back, she'll need one. And in the meantime, you can use it, too. Like, I don't know, like you've got her with you."

Yang stared at the sword in Sora's hand. Eventually, she moved towards him and grabbed it, holding it reverently as she ran her real hand along the weapon's edge. She bit her bottom lip, then returned the sword to its sheathe. She looked at the buttons for a while, then pressed one shaped like a down arrow. The sword slid back into its resting place. She walked around the bike to Jaune and put her hands on his cheeks. "I could kiss you," she said, causing the Keyblade wielder to begin to stammer uncontrollably. She settled for removing her right hand and planting one on his cheek, and the stammering intensified. She looked around. "You don't mind if I take her for a spin, right?"

Sora shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "Well, me and Ruby still have to finish setting up the trap and get ready for leaving tomorrow. We need to turn in now, anyways."

"We have an early flight back to Atlas to ask General Ironwood to send troops to help guard the – Well, you'll see," Weiss said, tapping her chin and grinning at the annoyed look on Yang's face. "Oh, you wouldn't want me to tell you the secret yet, Yang."

"Same here," Blake supplied quietly. "The remains of the White Fang that didn't follow Adam will want to help. They want to make people trust Faunus again."

"And we'll need to head to Mistral. We're being sent out to hunt down someone that threatened to bomb the school." The entire group spun on Ren and Nora. Ren nodded. "A Huntsman's duty is never done."

"Damn. I thought you guys would have another year before terrorism picked up again," Mercury muttered. He straightened his own disguise glasses before turning to Yang and Jaune. "Go. I, uh... I just want to go for a walk. Clear my head, you know? Never thought I'd be back in Vale after..." He trailed off. "Have fun."

Yang looked around. "You're sure?" They nodded. "Really?"

"YES!" They shouted all at once.

Yang shrugged. "Okay," she said. She let go of Jaune's face and jumped into the bike's front seat, grinning as Sora tossed her the keys, which were – to her great joy – shaped like the Kingdom Key. She started the bike up, appreciating the loud roar as the bike started before it turned into a powerful hum. She turned to Jaune and grinned. "Well? You gonna get on?"

"Wha?" Jaune wondered, pointing at himself.

Yang rolled her eyes and leaned out, grabbing his wrist and yanking him on behind her. She reached into the saddlebags and pulled out two helmets, one with a pair of yellow racing stripes she put on herself and a plain one that she tossed to Jaune. "Hold on tight, Good Boy," she said, then she gunned the engine and shot forward before Jaune realized what she'd told him to do. He yelped and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding on for dear life as they continued to accelerate.

"Yang, you didn't have to bring me!" he shouted over the wind as she weaved between cars.

Yang laughed. "I know!"

Jaune was quiet for a moment. "I meant, I know how you fly a Gummi Ship. I didn't want to risk seeing what you're like in _traffic_!"

Yang was quiet for a moment before laughing again. "I know."

Jaune grimaced and stared at the sky. "You're not feeling sick," Yang noted, and Jaune started. She was right, he was feeling... well, not good. Her driving basically guaranteed he'd never feel good or safe. But not sick, that was at least true.

"I... I guess not," Jaune muttered as they drove between two cars in traffic, then turned in front of a speeding truck with barely inches to spare. Jaune fought off the urge to cry at the semi honking right behind him. "How that's possible given the fact we almost died just now, I have no idea."

Yang didn't respond. Instead she just drove along, weaving through traffic as before. "Jaune... thanks," Yang suddenly said as she clutched the brake and the bike slid to a stop behind traffic. She turned around and pushed up her visor so her eyes could meet Jaune's better. "The sword, Jaune, it means a lot to me. That you would think of it means a lot to me."

Jaune let go of her and grabbed the sides of the bike. He was glad his helmet hid his face, lessening his anxiety under her lilac gaze. "You mean a lot to me."

Yang bit her lip and pushed the visor down as she turned back to the street. She felt her heart beating in her chest and she remembered an old thought: if Jaune ever wanted to get into a new relationship, he'd have to stop holding on to Pyrrha like she would walk through the door. Yang wasn't known for being patient when it came to things she liked, but if she cared enough she could manage. And, she had just realized after meeting his eyes and reliving their entire adventure so far, she thought Jaune might just be worth it. Ish.

For now, she'd just tease him.

She accelerated at full again, forcing Jaune to hold on tight in basically a hug. "Getting a little close there, Jauney?" Yang mocked as they shot through the intersection then swerved between cars and ran stop signs. "If you liked me that much, you could just tell me!"

"At what point are the police going to chase us!?"

"At what point could the police _catch_ us?!" Yang laughed without turning her eyes from the street. "Ooh! A ramp! Let's take this jump!"

"YANG!"


	26. So Close, yet So Far

**AN: Hey guys! Good to see you!**

 **Wow, Kingdom Hearts 3, huh? Kind of can't believe it's out. All in all, I think it's a pretty fun game. I personally liked the Drive Forms more than Keyblade Transformations, just from a sheer fun factor, but all the Keyblade Transformations were still fun. I really liked the attraction summons and -Za magic; those were my favorite mechanic additions. Oh, and Donald manages to heal me sometimes. It's like a miracle. Philoctetes and Mickey are kind of horrifying in Unreal Engine, though.**

 **I'm really excited about the Epilogue, though. It sets up a lot of cool directions KH4 could go. And when I first saw it, I actually thought that it suddenly tied up a bunch of weird logical inconsistencies that had been bugging me with the series.**

 **Anyways, just want to say thanks to everyone! Last chapter, this story passed 100 reviews. I'm glad you guys have so much to say about it!**

 **Now, for responses:**

 **To Gamelover41592: I don't currently have any plans to bring Jaune's nephew into this, nor (obviously) other characters like Oscar. For the most part, since this is heavy AU since the 3rd season, characters not introduced in those first 3 seasons won't be added for now. If the third story materializes after this one, that's a different story. Ha! Literally a different story!**

 **To G3r1k: It's only a matter of time now. I hope it feels... organic, I suppose.**

 **Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 _ **Chapter 26: So Close, Yet So Far**_

When Mercury, Ruby, and Genie opened their eyes, they found themselves standing at the center of a large, white circle surrounded by four stony pillars at the center of a large city spanning miles in any direction. Above Merc and Ruby's heads were green, glowing diamonds that marked them as 'players' under this world's rules. Genie, meanwhile, had no such diamond. As he had suggested before, his lumpy dog form was that of a companion creature connected with Mercury. The blue animal looked around and bit his cheek. "So this is Aincrad? I was hoping for something a little more like home."

"An underground bunker?" Mercury wondered dryly.

"A desert," Genie replied simply. "Ah, those Arabian Nights. They're like Arabian Days. Hotter than hot, in a lot of good ways."

"Stop that," Mercury grumbled, reaching down to forcefully pet the dog's head before shoving him lightly to the side.

"Hey," Genie grumbled. He sat down on his haunches. "It's not like I was singing the whole song!"

Ruby wasn't paying either of them any attention whatsoever. In fact, Mercury was nearly torn off his feet when she turned into a tornado of red and shot towards the crowds at a speed that could kill most people if she ran past them. She slid to a sudden stop behind someone, grabbing his weapon and tearing it from his back. "Oooh! A kanabo! That's so cool!" she shouted, drawing the attention of the angry man, who was loudly demanding his weapon be returned to him. She ignored him. "These can destroy almost any shield that someone tries to put in its path!" The weapon soared into the air as she turned into a tornado again. The guy yelped and dove forward, barely keeping the club from hitting the ground. Ruby reappeared on the other side of the circle, holding a pair of very wicked looking knives. "Wow, these are so cool! Did you make them yourself?" Before the woman she'd taken them from could answer, Ruby was already bothering another person.

"When they said she liked weapons, I don't think I really understood how much," Mercury muttered as he helplessly watched the red streak bounce around the crowd, stealing and dropping weapons as she went. She dove around a woman, stealing her bow and glowing arrows. "She's weapon crazy."

Genie watched her bounce between more people like a pinball. "She's almost cartoonish," he noted. Mercury turned and glared dryly at the Genie. "What? What!?"

Then, out of the crowd walked a disappointingly familiar face. "Well, well, well. And here I was hoping that I'd never see you again," Kirito said, hands up near his shoulders, eyes shut, and shaking his head. "I mean, I never thought I'd miss Dumb and Dumber."

"Kirito," Asuna admonished from beside him. "Mercury isn't nearly the worst person that could have shown up. Remember that... old man?"

Kirito's face contorted into a grimace. "Ugh, I'll never eat fish again," he groaned, placing one hand over his eyes. "So... So..." He shuddered.

"Exactly," Asuna said, taking no small amount of pleasure out of Kirito's suffering. She turned to Mercury. "It's good to see you. We were wondering what happened when you and the blondes dropped off the face of the earth, so it's... nice to see you guys aren't dead."

Mercury glared at her. She'd sounded a little strained forcing out that last bit. "And it's just as nice to see no one who's tried to murder you so far has succeeded. How many assassinations are you up to now?"

"Twelve for me, fifteen for him," Asuna muttered non-chalantly. "My numbers would be higher, but his voice is so annoying."

"Uh... huh," Mercury mumbled, unsure exactly how to respond to her pride at being utterly unlikable.

Kirito glanced up. "So, who's the kleptomaniac, red personification of ADHD over here?" he asked, gesturing with his thumb at Ruby who was _still_ jumping between people and stealing their weapons.

Genie was the one who answered, resulting in a pair of flabbergasted faces turning towards the blue dog. "Oh, that's Yang's younger sister, Ruby."

"I thought I'd seen everything this broken game had to offer," Kirito muttered once Genie finished before reaching out and poking at the dog. Genie's protests fell on deaf ears as Asuna also began to poke at him.

Mercury grinned and let the dog continue to get poked for a while, just to mess with him. Eventually, he decided enough was enough. "Given how much you act like a grumpy cat, I never would have pegged you as a dog person."

Kirito looked up and glared at Merc. "Okay, screw you," he muttered before he and Asuna, who was laughing at him, stood up. "So... Yang's sister? What, she and Dumber couldn't make it themselves?"

"She's stronger than either of them," Genie explained simply. "Maybe both together."

"And you of all people should know people with girly voices can be more dangerous than they appear, Kiki," Mercury said, drawing a manic glare from the swordsman. Asuna was barely stifling her laughter at Kirito now. Mercury turned away from them. "Ruby! Come meet Kirito and Asuna!"

The red torpedo turned abruptly and rushed towards them. Kirito yelped, worried that the missile was about to hit them. Mercury knew that, given her speed, that certainly seemed like a normal response. Kirito even yelped as she came close and suddenly stopped, sending a gust of wind past them. "Ooh! Two swords, that's pretty cool! My boyfriend Sora can use two Keyblades, but this is still fun. Most people can't even use one sword very well, but two?"

"She's very... personab – wait did she say that this Sora guy could use _two_ Keyblades!?" Kirito asked, rage growing again.

"You angry you aren't special anymore?" Asuna asked in a baby voice, pinching Kirito's cheek.

" _YES!_ " he screamed, drawing the attention of everyone in the town's square. He coughed. "I mean, no. Of course not."

"Mhm," Asuna muttered, letting go of his cheek and patting his back. "That almost sounded like you meant it." She looked over at Ruby. "But you did say 'two?' He has an extra he could, I don't know, trade?"

Ruby frowned. "I don't think that's how Keyblades work," she explained, unsure. "No, definitely not. You have to be worthy to have them!"

That struck a discordant note with Asuna. Her eyes began to glow red as she suddenly pulled out her rapier faster than anyone else in this game could draw their weapons. "Are you saying I'm unworthy!?"

Ruby, from behind her, replied. "I guess."

Asuna yelped and turned around, finding herself face to face with the tip of Ruby's Keyblade. The Huntress grabbed the rapier and tore it from Asuna's hand. "My friend is better with these than you. Oh, maybe Weiss would teach you some stuff if you ever met her!"

Mercury and Kirito looked over at Asuna, watching her eye twitch as she was suddenly stuck between her unyielding rage and the knowledge she probably couldn't beat the red hooded girl in front of her. "Ah, what's wrong?" Kirito asked, walking up and pinching Asuna's cheek. "You angry you aren't special anymore?"

She backhanded him into the ground. "Don't patronize me, Kirito," she growled before pulling her weapon back from Ruby's hand and sheathing it again.

Mercury chuckled and shook his head. "I see you two haven't changed," he noted simply. He crossed his arms. "So what exactly have you been up to since the, uh, 'ghost' problem."

Kirito rubbed the bright red patch on his cheek. "Oh, you know. Being the only two people here that aren't total idiots in this entire game," Kirito replied, not an ounce of humility in his voice. He glanced around, as if expecting someone to appear out of thin air. "Which reminds me, where are Dumb and Dumber?"

"Who?" Ruby asked.

Mercury sighed. "Yang and Jaune had something they had to do," he explained, jabbing Kirito in the ribs for using his nicknames for the duo in front of Ruby.

"What could be more important in this game than preparing to fight the next Floor Boss?" Asuna wondered. She wasn't dense enough to miss Mercury and Ruby exchanging a glance. "Hey, now, what was that about?"

"What?" Kirito asked, still rubbing at his cheek.

"They looked at each other when I asked the question," Asuna explained without looking away from Merc and Ruby. "Where are they?"

Mercury couldn't come up with a lie, so the truth it was. "Space. Fighting aliens that want to be god while trying to also fight his evil twin from a parallel reality." Ruby watched him, dumbfounded that he would just answer honestly.

"... Sure," Kirito said, rolling his eyes. "If you're going to lie to us, come up with something believable at least."

"You got me. Sorry," Mercury supplied with a shrug.

"Jerks never tell us anything," Asuna pouted from beside Kirito.

Ruby laughed nervously. "Well, uh, what – what fun is life without, er, secrets?" she asked brightly. Mercury groaned inwardly and rubbed his forehead. Was everyone in Keyboy's keychain this bad at lying?

"It is always nice knowing more than the idiots around you," Kirito agreed as he patted Asuna's back to comfort her. "You know, Silver, you seem kind of down."

Mercury glanced over at Kirito, confused.

"What? Are you and Greenie going through a dry spell?" Kirito asked mockingly. He shook his head and laughed. "An ol' argument? Are you, uh, 'too fast?'"

Mercury glared at him, fists shaking at his side. "Or, uh, wait! I got it! Did she leave you?"

Mercury growled, a noise unnoticed by Kirito. But Asuna didn't miss it. "Maybe she – Oof!"

Asuna's elbow collided with his ribs. "Shut up, Kirito!" she snapped. She cleared her throat and chuckled nervously. "Kirito still hasn't learned how to stop when he's _less_ behind."

"Don't you mean ahead?" Kirito coughed.

Asuna glared at him. "I meant what I said."

Genie cut in again, clearing his throat. "We're here to help you guys with the Boss Fight. Jaune and Yang trusted us with it while they're busy."

"You know, I still can't get over the talking dog," Kirito muttered, just staring at the blue creature. "You look a little soft around the edges. Are you going to be any help in the fight?"

"I'll have you know my bite is worse than my bark," Genie replied jokingly.

"Well, then it's good to have you guys around, then," Asuna stated. "Almost every enemy for the past twenty floors was replaced entirely with those 'Heartless' things that you talked about. We've had massive losses the entire way up here." She began to walk, motioning for the group to follow her through the city towards a very large circular building not far off.

Kirito didn't glance up as he added, "No one important, obviously."

"I can see why Jaune and Yang think he's a jerk," Ruby whispered to Mercury. "But why are they friends with him?"

Asuna, meanwhile, had shoved Kirito backwards. "If that's it, we'll take you to where the raid party is gathering. The head of our guild -"

"Ugh, stop reminding me," Kirito grumbled angrily. "I can't believe I lost to that blowhard."

"The head of our guild," Asuna repeated despite Kirito's repeated groan, "is always on the lookout for more help."

"And for some reason, everyone that Dumb and Dumber know is a halfway decent fighter," Kirito picked up. "So, less chance of me or Asuna dying!"

"Don't worry! I can handle anything anyone throws at me!" Ruby explained cheerily. "Me and Crescent Rose here don't lose to anyone!" She twirled her Keyblade in front of her, then let it rest across her shoulders.

"Besides Sora," Mercury pointed out.

"Hey! I'll have you know the score is currently 35-5, Mercury!" Ruby exclaimed proudly. "It's comeback time!"

Genie shook his head at the others from behind Ruby. "Sure," Mercury agreed half-heartedly. "Sure it is."

"Ah, Kirito. Asuna." a man in crimson heavy armor said as they approached the building. He stood with a clear weight of command upon his shoulders, his long gray hair tightly in place in its warrior's ponytail, save for a long strand hanging just outside of his field of vision. He looked weary, and more than a little annoyed.

"Huh, seeing you earlier than expected, Cliff" Kirito muttered as he and the group stopped in front of the man.

"A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to," Heathcliff stated, slamming the end of his massive shield into the ground. He was smirking, though that smug smile quickly disappeared when his gaze locked onto the trio of newcomers. His gaze became inscrutable and his eyes studied the three as best as he could. "And who is your little fellowship here?"

"You've met Mercury before. Fast, annoying, likes getting handsy with girls with green hair," Kirito said, gesturing at the former assassin. Mercury cast him an annoyed glare.

"I'm Ruby!" the huntress stated, jumping forward and throwing her empty right hand towards Heathcliff. The hooded woman's sudden movement had surprised him, and he'd taken a step back. "Your sword and shield are so cool! They remind me of my friend Jaune's old weapons, but way bigger! How do you move around with that thing?" She grabbed hold of his right hand and began to shake it violently. "If you're their guild leader, you must be able to move pretty quickly with it, right? Did you build them yourself?"

The man's eyes glanced to her left hand, where the Keyblade dangled in her grip. "Nothing so interesting as what you have. I don't remember those being coded into the game," he said cautiously before letting go of her hand. "Of course, neither were these glitches – these Heartless, as they're called." He turned his attention next to Genie. "And I don't think I've ever heard of _that_ before."

" _That,_ " Genie began, looking rather offended, "has feelings. Don't make me chase you like a mail man."

Heathcliff looked incredibly confused now before smiling wide. "This game has even greater programming than anyone could believe!"

Kirito snorted derisively. "Or Kayaba put all his effort into a weird dog while letting glitches that kill people for drinking water stick in the game."

Heathcliff's eye twitched before he shook his head. "Well, I am very glad that we have some new members for the raid party. Between us, the numbers were starting to dip quite low."

"Anyone stupid enough to fight is stupid enough to die," Kirito pointed out.

"Doesn't that include you?" Mercury wondered dryly.

"Shut up, Edgelord," Kirito snapped.

Ruby snorted. "That sounds like the pot calling the kettle black," she pointed out, dismissing the Keyblade and pointing at Kirito.

"She's known you for ten minutes and she already has you down pat," Asuna muttered from behind Kirito.

"Is this make fun of Kirito day?" he grumbled. He glanced around at everyone's nodding. "Surely you can't be serious."

Heathcliff piped up, "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley." He looked around at the confused stares. "Wh – Oh, come on! No one? No one!"

"Too angry for _Airplane,"_ Kirito continued to grumble.

"Wow," Asuna muttered. "You're like my five year old cousin if airplanes make you happy."

Kirito's mood darkened further. "You're killing me, Asuna. _Killing_ me."

 _ **R W B Y**_

The field was quiet save for the chittering of a few Shadows and Neoshadows waiting for Hearts in the night when the Corridor of Darkness opened. The creatures turned towards it, confused and intrigued by the sudden burst of Darkness signaling the arrival of a powerful, tainted Heart. One of the Neoshadows exploded when large blade and chain created from pure Darkness exploded out of the portal, cleaving it in two. The weapon whipped around, cleaving through a few Shadows before the rest of the Heartless melted into the ground and waited for their enemy to appear. The blade and chain whirled around for another moment before snapping taut and retracting into the portal. Not long after, a young woman walked out; the Corridor slowly vanished, closing behind her.

She was dressed in all black, with a lightly armored padding running down her arms and legs. Her chest was protected by a form fitting jacket, and her feet were clad in combat boots with steel toes. The chains formed from Darkness swirled up her arms, seeming to come out of her body to connect with the large weapons hovering near her hands. Her eyes, a burning yellow that with her dark skin seemed to hollow out her face, swept across the field, seeing all of the Heartless in the ground despite the Dark of night. Her green hair, pulled back in a tight combat ponytail, bounced slightly when she spun around, cleaving a leaping Shadow in two. It was then that the Heartless truly began to assault this newcomer.

The woman was soon dancing between attacks as Shadows solidified out of the ground to claw at her and Neoshadows spun through the air like saws to cleave her in two. Their glowing, blue claws sliced through the air, almost cutting through her hair if not for the wall of chains that erupted from the ground around her, creating a wall that the attacks harmlessly bounced off of. The chains responded to the attacks immediately, looping themselves around the attacking Heartless. The woman walked away from the captive creatures struggling against her ethereal chains, instead paying attention to the creatures now slowly appearing out of the Darkness. The woman cocked her head to the side, and the chains behind her tightened their grip. The Heartless within shrieked and were immediately split in two, their halves floating upward into smoke.

Out of the night stalked more Shadows and Neoshadows, but more importantly was the large creature that moved within their mob. That creature was a massive goat monster, with gleaming yellow eyes. It stood on two goat legs with a long, lizard like tail swishing at its back. In its right hand it held a massive sword, almost its own height, with a semi-circular divot near the top of the back edge. Its skin was a deep black, save for the glowing red accents and horns coming from its head, as well as the large Heartless emblem burning both at the center of its chest and on the flat of the massive blade. The creature roared and charged at her, swiping a small group of its own Heartless with its claw as it charged ahead, causing them to explode into a puff of smoke.

The woman calmly raised her golden eyes at the Heartless and raised her weapons of Darkness in front of her just as its sword came around, catching the blade between them. The force of the blow immediately threw her off of her feet, sending her flying towards the edge of the forest on the field. She twirled in the air, a sense of urgency growing in her gut as she realized this creature's strength was greater than she had expected. Chains exploded out of her arms, wrapping around one of the trees. Her movement stopped, and another chain shot out from her other arm to wrap around another tree. Her momentum continued, and she made the chains increase in elasticity. Eventually, the chains snapped back and she dismissed them, flying towards the large goat. Neoshadows and Shadows leaped into her path, but she spun her blades in front of her, easily mulching the creatures dumb enough to attack her head on. The Goat Heartless snarled and raised its sword, swinging the flat at the woman flying at it like a spinning arrow. The woman threw her arms up, chains shooting out to wrap around the sword. She then used the chains to force herself over the weapon, changing her trajectory from the monster's chest to its head. Its horned head. Its horned head that jolted forward, slamming its forehead right into hers.

The woman went flying again, this time not clearheaded enough to keep herself from flyring through tree branches until she finally slammed into a trunk and fell, breaking more branches until she landed, heavily, on one large enough to support her weight. The woman groaned and slowly pushed herself to her feet, just in time to leap out of the way to avoid the sword that destroyed the tree she was in. She jumped to another and glared at the Goat, readying her weapons again. The creature spun around, a single swipe of its massive weapon destroying the trees that blocked its path to her. Neoshadows melted out of the Darkness and spun at her just as the monster's blade stabbed towards her, no direction open to dodge. The woman threw her left hand up, summoning another wall of chains that entangled around the smaller Heartless. The blade of the large one, however, passed between two lengths. She threw herself to the side and tumbled off the branch, barely avoiding the blade. The wall of chains tightened and destroyed the Heartless they held just as she hit the ground.

The goat like Heartless snarled and brought its foot up, then down on top of her. Her eyes widened and she rolled to the side, narrowly managing to avoid the attack. She used her momentum to spring up to her feet, spinning as she flew into the air and slashed at the Heartless' legs. It shrieked in pain and stumbled forward, falling to its knees as it grabbed hold of a large tree to support itself. The woman pressed her advantage, leaping over its swiping claw and landing on its arm. She jumped onto its shoulder, this time expecting the powerful headbutt and grabbing hold of its horn so she could land atop its head instead. Chains formed a spring beneath her feet and she launched herself high into the sky, the force of the blow also stunning the creature at the same time. She turned in the air and directed herself down, summoning another wall of chains as she began to tumble downwards. The chains of Darkness began to spin in front of her, buzzing like a massive drill as they cut through the air. The monster roared and raised its sword in an effort to defend against her attack, even managing to put it directly in her path. But it was a useless effort, as the spinning chains easily burrowed through the blade and then further through its body. The woman's feet hit the ground with a quiet thud.

She stood up and sheathed her weapons, the massive blades of Darkness vanishing from around the blades of her kama. The woman walked through the cloud of Darkness the dying Heartless left behind, the command still echoing in her sealed off Heart: 'Find the World Seed.' Paying little thought to the creatures she had just destroyed, she continued on, following the connection that the Kingdom Key D had crafted in her Heart that led her to the artifact. It felt faint. Far off. But it was heading for a pillar leading into the sky. That was, therefore, where the woman would go.

Deep within her Heart, hidden away by solid walls crafted from OJ's hatred, Emerald could only watch her body march on without her. It was a puppet of OJ's, with not even her own Darkness being used to fuel its attacks. Thankfully, she thought. If Mercury and the Blondes hadn't managed to keep the Core out of OJ's hands, it would be her own Darkness. He wouldn't have to section her off like this because she'd want to help him kill and maim everything from Remnant to the furthest reaches of the World. Hopefully she could get out of this before she got her hands on the Seed, then she could give Merc a knock on the head for lying to her all that time. If he hadn't, they wouldn't be in this position. But she could picture his response now: "You know you love me."

 _ **R W B Y**_

Mercury frowned as he marched along behind Asuna and Kirito. Something about those two was different. A little off. Those two constantly made fun of people for any kind of touchy feely kind of emotion, and yet here they were constantly brushing against one another. Whispering. Giggling. Almost like they – His eyes widened. "Oh, you see it now, huh?" Genie-Dog asked, smirking up at Mercury.

"See what?" Ruby asked innocently.

"You already knew?" Mercury asked the dog. "How?"

"You and Al have been acting like that for months now. Just comparing and contrasting," Genie supplied jokingly.

Mercury sighed angrily and sped up slightly, followed closely by Ruby and Genie. "You know, for someone that made fun of me and Emerald so much, you sure are close with Asuna here," Mercury hissed at Kirito.

The swordsman laughed dryly. "Well, we aren't disgusting."

"Disagree!" someone shouted from within the crowd.

"Shut up, Caynz, no one asked you!" Asuna shouted back.

"Go back to Kinkos, you idiot!" Kirito continued.

Mercury sighed. "Well, at least with you two off the table no one will be forced into dating one of you psychotic monsters," he supplied. He motioned at the two of them and tossed them a wary glance. "You two really are meant for each other."

Asuna and Kirito looked at one another, then back at him. "... Thanks?" Asuna responded, unsure if that was the right thing to say.

"It's a rare form of... positive codependence?" Genie supplied. His dog body shrugged, a very odd movement for the four legged creature. "If that's a thing."

"Kayaba coded you mean," Kirito muttered, tossing an angry glare at the Genie.

Genie stopped walking for half a moment. "Mean. Huh. Never been called _that_ before."

"So, when did that happen?" Mercury asked, pocketing his hands. Kirito looked over at him, obviously confused as to why he was interested. "What? Got to pass the time somehow."

Asuna sighed. "I suppose. And Kirito's favorite past time is talking about himself."

"You're one to talk," Kirito said defensively. She glared at him. "Ach! Not that I don't love hearing it!"

"Better," Asuna said with a cruel smile. She didn't say anything for a moment, then: "Well? Going to start flapping those lips again or are you going to stand there like an idiot?"

"Yes ma'am!" Kirito muttered as her hand approached her rapier. She nodded, satisfied with his terror, and let him speak. "Well, we uh, kind of started... had some fun one night a little while after –"

"'Had some fun?'" Asuna asked dryly. She shook her head. "You're a child. We boned!"

Kirito's face turned bright red, and his high pitched voice whined, "Asuna!" She just shrugged and motioned for him to tell the story, under the knowledge that she could interrupt him at any moment. He snarled under his breath before continuing speaking, face still bright pink. "We did... what she said. And then -"

"He immediately asked me to marry him!" Asuna whispered mockingly.

Kirito glared at her. "And she immediately said yes!" Her laughter vanished.

Mercury's, however, did not. "You... really? Both of you?" he asked between laughter.

Ruby was bright red, having covered her face with her hood the moment Asuna said 'Boned.' "Oh, don't talk about this!"

"As if you and Keyboy haven't had your share of fun running around by yourselves for a few months," Mercury said, waving his hand at Ruby dismissively.

She grew more red and basically blended in perfectly with her hood now.

Genie shook his head. "I think Sora's too scared of Yang, Qrow, and Tai to try that," he pointed out.

"Can I continue my story?" Kirito growled, finally getting Merc to be quiet. "Well, we... got married and took our honeymoon in a cabin in the middle of the woods. We woke up the next day to find a little girl in our bed. And _not_ in a weird way! Well, not in the weird way that... never mind. She called us her mom and dad. So, naturally, we decided to... to... love and cherish her and try to find her real parents while slowly coming to love her as our own!"

Mercury raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Ruby still had her hood all the way down over her head, muttering to herself. Genie, however, did speak. "Okay, Pinocchio."

Asuna decided to ignore the remark. "And then we got too attached. She became our daughter." This time, she actually sounded... sincere. "Right before she..." Asuna teared up and clenched her fists as she walked.

Kirito laced his fingers with hers and opened his menu as they walked. A small, teardrop shaped object appeared in his palm a moment later. "Turned out that she wasn't human. She was an A.I. That was designed to help people deal with trauma. She got locked up by Kayaba not long after the game started and, well, she saw that we cared about each other and she wanted to understand why."

"I still don't understand why," Mercury muttered under his breath.

"Right before the system could delete her, I saved her by turning her data into this item," Kirito continued, not catching Mercury's remark. "She's locked in there, now. Waiting for us to save her."

Ruby peeked out from under her hood. "I can save her, you know."

Kirito's and Asuna's faces immediately shot in her direction. "The Keyblade gives me pow – Admin privileges, kind of. I can unlock her. Bring her back, once this whole fight is over," Ruby explained earnestly.

Asuna and Kirito glanced at one another, then shot towards Ruby to hug her. Both were ugly crying, now. "I can't believe that we have a chance to save her now!" Asuna cried on Ruby's right shoulder.

"It's everything I ever wanted!" Kirito shouted from her left.

Ruby smiled kindly. "It's no problem. Once we finish this fight, I'll help you save her," she explained, patting the backs of the two crying players. "I don't think that a Boss Room is any place for a little girl."

"She's invulnerable," Asuna tearfully explained, barely understandable.

Ruby laughed anxiously. "Still. I wouldn't be able to concentrate. I'd be too freaked out." She peeled the pair off of her and reached into her pocket. "By the way, Sora and I heard a lot about you guys from Yang and Jaune, and we thought it would be a good idea to give you guys this." She pulled out a plain letter, the envelope sealed with a wax circle with a trio of circles at the center, one large one with the other two forming almost ears at the top.

Kirito grabbed hold of the envelope and turned it around in his hand. "What is this?"

Ruby smiled and tapped her chin. "Let's call it a... mission invite. Hold onto it, and you'll see what it's all about."

Kirito cocked his head to the side, obviously wanting more information but willing to accept what he was going to get from the confusing girl. He shrugged and opened his menu, depositing the item, as well as his daughter's crystal. "Um... thanks," he muttered. He glanced over at Mercury. "You too, Edgelord. It'll be nice to have you guys around for this, and, well, it'll be nice to see Yui again."

Asuna smiled and wiped a tear from her eye. "For once, this big whiny baby is right. Thanks."

Mercury felt his chest tighten and he smiled. "What are friends for?"

It was at that moment that Heartless decided to attack, popping out of the ground all around the raid party. Heathcliff's sword and shield were ready in half a moment and he raised his weapon above his head. "Circle up! Don't let them behind us! Kirito, Asuna, Mercury, Ruby – strike team, now!"

Mercury grinned as he heard that, and he summoned red flames to his heels. He shot forward, swinging his leg up and landing a Firaga fueled kick to one Heartless – this one a mummy with an onion shaped head called a Wight Knight – that immediately turned it into ash. He ran to the next spinning through the air in a kick that this Wight managed to block with its claws, the magic of the colliding blows creating a clear _ting_ and altering his momentum. He backflipped through the air, landing not far from the Heartless as more appeared around it, including flying Gargoyles and dancing large, Ronin-esque Heartless with demonic red masks wielding two blades – one coated with ice, the other with flames. Oni. He rushed forward again, leaping over an attack from the sword made of ice and delivering a quick kick to the Wight's head, using it as a springboard to get higher into the air. He brought his left foot around, this time coating it in bright yellow bolts of electricity, and slammed it into the Gargoyle just before it could lash out with its massive claws. The creature shrieked as the Thundaga flew into its body, causing sparks to fly out and collide with the other Heartless. He used the Heartless as a pivot and spun around it using his knee to block a blade of flame coming at him. The blow still sent him flipping backwards, unharmed as he landed on his feet.

Just as that happened, a trio of colors flashed past him, weapons glowing as they carved through different Heartless. A pair of swords quickly attacked twice each, effortlessly carving through the Wight at the center of the Heartless. It shrieked and died almost immediately, Kirito grinning as he turned his attention to another Heartless approaching from outside this group. He met blades with the Oni, trading lightning fast attacks that left a thousand tiny cuts all over the creature. Its attacks became slower and weaker with every passing moment, Kirito's attacks clearly wearing it down. He jumped backwards, smirking at the fire sword that had slammed into the dirt in front of him, melting it into a warped and broken glass. He immediately caught himself as he landed, digging in with his heels and sprinting ahead, slashing with the blue sword in his left hand at the Heartless' wrist before it could raise its sword again. His weapon glowed for a moment, then quickly carved the hand from the Heartless' body. He moved again, bringing both swords up and crossing them to take the incoming attack he couldn't dodge. The ice sword crashed into his weapons and a burst of cold air exploded all around him, swirling against the warm fire blade. He grunted, exerting himself, and shoved upward. The Heartless' sword reeled upward slightly, giving him space to dash to the side, spinning and tossing his black sword straight ahead and into the Oni's mask, right in the holes where its yellow eyes glowed at him. The Heartless roared in pain but couldn't stop the quick decay of its body as the attack completely destroyed its ability to hold itself together. Deciding that his allies had the rest, he dashed towards a group of Heartless the Tanks in the shield wall were having trouble with, confident he could make a dent.

Asuna had been doing just as well, her rapier quickly piercing the Gargoyle three times – once through the chest and once through each eye. It shrieked as she flipped through the cloud of smoke where it had once been, landing atop the back of one of the Oni. She jabbed her weapon into its neck then jumped off, twirling midair to avoid the pair of swords that had been coming her way. She surgically stabbed again, this time cutting through one of the Heartless' eyes. It roared in pain as one of the yellow lights went dark, blinding it on its left. Important to remember. She landed softly and dashed to her right, smack into the middle of the Heartless' blind spot. It snarled and swung its flame sword blindly, managing to get close through sheer luck. Asuna simply ducked under it and silently dashed further into its blind spot, charging up a sword skill as she did. The rapier shot forward, piercing the side of the Oni's knee. It roared and its knee buckled, the sword blindly attacking again. Asuna jumped over this low attack, flipping and landing on her feet behind the Heartless. She rushed forward, blade stabbing quickly and repeatedly into the unprotected back of its neck. The monster gave one last roar of pain before succumbing to its wounds and dematerializing. She turned and used the basket of the rapier to redirect a Wight Knights claws before jabbing with her sword and skewering its onion head like it was a kebab. She turned and readied her stance again, glaring at the Heartless that were advancing on her. "Who's next?" she asked, grinning before she ran forward to kill them.

Ruby meanwhile was taking on odds that even they couldn't handle alone, her Keyblade still in its sword form as she faced off against a trio of Oni and a pair of Gargoyles closing in on her. She raised her weapon in front of her in both hands, glaring at the Heartless with her glowing, silver eyes. She dodged a flame sword at the last second, a blur of red disappearing and reappearing beside the weapon. Then she disappeared again, avoiding the divebomb by one of the Gargoyles, reappearing in front of the Oni that had yet to attack her. It took a surprised step back and brought its sword around clumsily, the attack not even coming close as she reappeared behind it, blade held high above her left shoulder. The Heartless twitched for a moment, then exploded from the burn of the Light magic that naturally coated Ruby's Keyblade. It left nothing but a crystalline Heart drifting towards the sky. She turned around immediately, slapping a Gargoyle's claws to the side and bringing her right hand up, a sphere of black in her fists that caused a localized burst of gravity magic to act on the flying Heartless. It slammed into the ground, flat as a pancake, and Ruby stepped over it, easily blocking one of the other Oni's attacks with her Keyblade. She jumped to the side as the last Oni charged, letting the two Heartless' swords clash. The magic in the weapons collided and both monsters were thrown back and stunned, leaving Ruby alone with one uninjured Gargoyle. She feinted to its left, and the creature shot immediately to the right. Grinning, Ruby just brought herself around with her momentum and aimed the tip of the Keyblade where the Gargoyle was going to go. A single bolt of Lightning slammed into the Heartless and turned it to ash, its Heart freed.

The Oni and other Gargoyle had recovered by this point and swarmed Ruby, attacking from all sides. Ruby was faster than any of them could hope to match, however, and the Keybade swirled around her, deflecting and blocking the attacks that she didn't bother to dodge. After a moment, she grew bored of doing that. The air around her turned a blazing gold, twelve numerals surrounding her. The Heartless froze midattack, but Ruby continued to spin. Her Keyblade flashed in a brilliant white and red Light, elongating in her hands as it unfolded and her new scythe carved effortlessly through all three of her enemies. She came to a stop, the long handle of Crescent Rose resting across her back just as the spell ended; a bright white flash appeared on all three Heartless, the attacks finally being felt with the disappearance of the spell, and vanished all at once. Ruby jumped up, tossing her right hand in the air and dismissing the scythe. "Yes!" She shouted before landing.

Mercury assaulted the Heartless that had remained behind, a pair of large Oni. He kicked out, a bolt of Thunder on his heel as he closed in. The Heartless took the kick, an explosion of electricity passing to the other Heartless. He grinned and lowered his leg as only smoke remained. He'd killed them. Then he noticed the yellow masks glaring down at him from the smoke. "Oh, great." One of the swords slammed into him before he could respond, sending him tumbling across the ground.

"Graceful, Silver," Genie said, bounding up.

"Oh, stick a bone in it." Mercury huffed and stood up, brushing dirt off before readying to attack again. "Guess I just have to kick them harder!"

Genie sighed and jumped in front of his partner. "Just watch them, Amateur," he grumbled before opening his mouth and screaming "Watch out!" A blue, spiraling crystal of magic flew towards the two Heartless and exploded between them. Ice coated their bodies, and Merc could tell that that attack – while not quite powerful – had hurt them more than his Lightning based kick. When he looked at their masks, he suddenly knew why.

"They're blue!" he shouted, suddenly realizing what was happening. "They become immune to whatever spell I used last!"

"And he's done it! The kid _can_ learn!" Genie shouted, almost changing his shape for dramatic effect before stopping himself.

Merc glared at his partner. "Just pepper them with more attacks while I get in close. Set me up for a good combo," he commanded before rushing the Oni again. He leaped when he wasn't far from them, avoiding horizontal blade attacks, and lashed out with flame coated heels. The Oni he hit screamed in pain as the flames coated its body, destroying chunks of armor and sending it flying back. Its mask turned red just before it slammed into a dying tree, one of the massive branches impaling it all the way through.

Meanwhile, Genie was peppering the other Heartless with tiny spells, never the same twice in a row. The attacks were weak, but managed to distract the Heartless during Mercury's attack. It abandoned attacking him and sprinted towards the blue dog, slamming both of its massive swords down where the dog stood. Genie vanished in a puff of blue smoke before appearing behind it. "Who would attack a dog?" he asked, giving the creature puppy dog eyes. It turned and stared at him for a moment... then raised its weapons again. "Uh-oh." Genie vanished again, appearing just outside of the Oni's attack range, peppering the Heartless with more weak spells. A burst of wind slammed into it last, giving it a clear mask that revealed the emptiness within.

"Just what I wanted!" Mercury shouted, sprinting past Genie and not bothering to use a spell this time. "A glass jaw!" He jumped, backflipping as he performed a bicycle kick that landed directly on the Heartless' chin. The mask and head snapped back, the loud sound of cracking glass echoing through the forest as the Heartless was thrown upwards, its mask now a dull and chipped gray. Genie came up beside the assassin and they nodded, turning their attention to the quickly falling heartless. Merc fell to the ground and began to spin on his shoulders, creating a massive gust of wind just as Genie began to chase his tail beside him. After a moment, an Aeroza exploded from where the two stood, shredding the Heartless completely before it could come close to the ground. The gale force winds also caught other, weaker Heartless and sent them flying in every direction. Shadows, Soldiers, and more all crashed into trees, either vanishing or giving players easy opportunities to gut them before they could recover.

When the winds finally died down, Mercury was scratching Genie's head. "Good boy," he said as he surveyed the battlefield, now free of Heartless.

"This is patronizing," Genie grumbled before adding, "Oh, a little to the left! There!" His back left leg began to scratch at a non existent itch and he sighed happily. "Oh, that's the spot."

Mercury immediately recoiled. "Don't do that," he commanded the Genie. "It's weird."

 _ **R W B Y**_

OJ walked out of the Corridor of Darkness, glancing around cautiously. He was sure that there were sensors in this Keyblade Academy that would alert everyone in the building that a Corridor had opened and an intruder was present, which meant it was only a matter of time before this place was swarming with enemies. Qrow and Ozpin especially would present a problem, and even he couldn't stand against too many fighters of that caliber. He sighed and continued forward, as silent as he could manage, following the burning scent of Darkness that drifted through the halls. It was easy for him to follow, attuned with the Darkness as he was. It wasn't long before he stood beside a wall where the scent burned the most.

It was a completely plain wall, with no features whatsoever. Nothing but a white wall. OJ frowned and placed his hand on the wall, moving side to side and noticing that the scent grew weaker even when he turned the corner, and that there were no doors on any of the walls. He returned to where the scent was strongest. There had to be an entrance on this wall for the scent to come across so clearly here. He tried to open a Corridor beyond the wall, but frowned as any attempts to forge the doorway needed suddenly failed when his connection to the space beyond the wall became fuzzy and confused. He felt magic pushing his attention in different directions, distracting him from creating the gate. He lowered his hands and crossed his arms; Genie must have removed the door completely. Not a bad idea since his Keyblade was capable of opening any door it came across. No door meant no lock, and no lock meant having a skeleton key wasn't helpful for once. And he couldn't break the wall down just to see what was inside; this was supposed to be a covert operation, after all. But how to get through the wall, then? Given enough time, he might be able to find a way to return the door and enter that way, but he didn't have that kind of time right then. He was sure that people were already on their way to check on the Core.

So, instead, he summoned his Keyblade and let his Aura flow into the Kingdom Key D before amplifying that energy over his entire body. He took a step forward and pushed his head through the wall. Within, a single light glowed over a lone pedestal, illuminating the entire room. The pedestal had a box on top of it, again with no visible creases. They must have had Genie remove that as well. He looked around this new room some more, frowning at the spiraling, concentric square boundaries made from Light. Sora was smarter than OJ gave him credit for if he had noticed that OJ's Aura had been depleted completely by going through a single wall. With more than twenty within this room, he knew he couldn't get in to the Core, and even if he could then there was no way he'd be able to get out. He growled, more than a little annoyed that Sora and Ruby weren't as stupid as he'd assumed, and pulled away from the wall. He stopped charging his Aura and dismissed his Keyblade as he exited the wall, thinking his options over. The walls were essentially locks placed by Keyblade Masters, so the trick with them would just be to attune the Keyblade to the wall and turn the lock. Which would take time, a lot of it, during which he couldn't break concentration at all. And with so many walls, he definitely didn't have the time to get through.

He placed a hand on his chin, knowing he had to get out of there and head to Gaia soon. If he didn't hurry and get in place, Jaune would get the Black Materia and give it over to Sora. Not an insurmountable obstacle, but it would be a setback. He also thought he heard footsteps, but he wasn't sure. He couldn't risk becoming a hostage – He grinned. A hostage. All he had to do was capture someone that one of them would betray everyone else to save. Then they would hand over whatever they captured without any trouble. And given what he had heard about while scouting this place before, he knew exactly when to do it. They had a trap for him, one that would result in his capture if he tried to get the Core, but he had still had to see it with his own eyes. So he'd spring that trap, but he'd go for something else entirely, and then they'd be one blonde down.

He opened another Corridor and walked through it, the doorway behind him vanishing completely just before a man with a cane turned the corner. He glanced around from behind his green glasses before bringing a cup of coffee up to his lips. "Another breach," Ozpin muttered before glancing down at his Scroll. "But the Core is undisturbed." He turned around. He would increase guard patrols, but the only people who could even hold off OJ were himself and Qrow, so there was no point. He would just have to hope their trap worked; it was their best chance.


	27. Roses in December

**AN: Hey everybody! How's it going? I'm good. Personally dealing with Lent. It's good, and it's an excuse to eat fish in a landlocked area. Always good.**

 **Responses!**

 **To Gamelover41592: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. After this one, we go back to Jaune, Ruby, and Sora for their adventure in Gaia. I hope that this chapter is a good conclusion to the SAO:A world and that you have as much fun with it as I did!**

 **Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the chapter. After this chapter is over, we are four or five chapters from the final stretch of the story! It's been a long time coming, but we are right there!**

 _ **Chapter 27: Roses in December**_

Mercury wanted to die. Heathcliff was trying to give some kind of uplifting speech or something, but given his audience that was going about as well as could be expected. He'd tried doing the whole thing about 'fighting as a single sword,' really driving that teamwork angle. Predictably, someone had immediately responded with, "Uh, I feel like multiple swords would be more effective, Sir."

Then he tried to explain that it was a metaphor. Which lead to explaining what a metaphor was. But that got ignored. People wanted to be warhammers, or daggers. And then Ruby decided to jump in, because why wouldn't she? "No, let's be a scythe! We are the grim reaper of our enemies, cutting them down like _wheat!_ " she shouted, voice getting 'low' and 'threatening' towards the end.

"... Yeah!" someone shouted from the crowd. Someone started chanting 'Scythe, scythe, scythe!' and then it just caught on. Currently, Heathcliff was trying to get everyone to focus on the bossfight instead of the chanting. He looked like a very broken man.

Finally, Heathcliff just turned towards the door. "Christ, at least you finally agree on something," he grumbled before shoving the door open and walking through, the mob following and still chanting.

"Just as popular as her sister," Kirito noted dryly as he watched Ruby lead the mob into the room. "How do they do that?"

"Well for one, they treat the little people like people," Asuna pointed out, jabbing Kirito in the ribs. "And for another, they're girls in a game that's, like, 95% teenage boys. They could say hi and inspire a mob."

"Since you don't inspire mobs, something must be super wrong with you, right?" Mercury asked Asuna.

"I will kill your dog," she replied coldly, eyes not even glancing towards him.

Genie nodded. "I think I know what's wrong with her, Silver." He turned his gaze towards Kirito. "You apparently like... 'strong women,' eh Poor-man's-Guts?"

Kirito began to say something, but it was quickly drowned out by a massive screech that echoed down from the ceiling as the last of the players entered the room. The doors creaked shut behind them, trapping the party in the boss room. Fires slowly ignited around the edges of the room, casting an eerie light over everything. The walls began to glow. And from the ceiling, all present could see a Heartless of black bone and scythe-like centipede legs dangling, its yellow eyes filled with hunger for the tiny humans below. It dropped, easily turning to land on its many sharp legs. The massive head, shaped like a horrifyingly mutated human skull, opened wide and noxious gas seeped out. Some of the dumber players rushed through the gas, hoping to attack the creature while it was standing still. Their Hearts were devoured the moment they touched it.

"Everyone, hold steady!" Heathcliff ordered, drawing his sword. "And for god's sake, don't just Leroy Jenkins in there!"

Almost as if in response, someone began rushing forward by himself. "Leeeeeeroy! Jenkiiiiiiiins!" He didn't last long.

Heathcliff just watched him go into the smoke. "Any other takers? Anyone else asking themselves, 'Do I feel lucky?' Well? Punks?"

The smoke eventually cleared, and the Heartless began to advance towards the party. "Team A, take the left, team B the right!" Heathcliff shouted. "Tanks, draw its attention, but keep an eye on your HP. If you're getting low, switch in with the second line!" The party moved off to follow their orders, with Merc, Ruby, and Genie starting in one direction while Kirito and Asuna charged in the other. "Wait! You four!"

Genie grumbled out under his breath, "I'm an NPC so I don't count?"

"You four are obviously our best fighters. Separate and attack from the back. If it uses that gas attack again, we'll need you to keep it from healing while we can't get to it," Heathcliff ordered. "And you'll need to deal with the mobs that spawn when it summons them!"

"Guess you're stuck with us," Mercury said, running over to Kirito and Asuna on the edge of the arena.

"At least you aren't going to make any bad puns," Kirito responded. He smirked and added, "Did you know some scientists say puns are a sign of brain damage? Given how often Dumb and Dumber make them, I'd say I believe it."

"Hey, that's my sist – Okay, they make too many puns," Ruby admitted, appearing in front of the others. She shook her head. "She gets it from our dad." She summoned the Keyblade to her hand and jumped ahead of the group, killing a Wight Knight that had appeared in their path. She hit the ground without losing any momentum and decided to keep point. "But still, Dumb and Dumber?"

"It's not undeserved," Kirito replied while drawing both blades from his back. The black sword glowed a bright blue as he slashed across another Wight's chest, then the other a deep green as it made the final blow that killed the Heartless. Their group soon came to a stop behind the Heartless, watching its sharpened tail bone thrash about as it attacked the rest of the raid party. "Now, what the hell are we going to do about that?"

"No, we're not letting you take it on your own," Mercury said. Ruby's hand, which had shot up, went down.

"Well," Ruby said, dejected by the refusal to let her go all out, "we could always take out its legs then run up its back." She pouted before tacking on, "If we're being boring..."

"How are you older than them?" Mercury asked her, jerking his head at Kirito and Asuna. He sighed. "Who goes where?"

"Me and Kirito will try to cut the legs off," Ruby said, pulling herself together. "We're more fit for that. You, Asuna, and Genie can deal with things trying to sneak up on us."

"If you say so, Red," Merc said. He turned around, watching as more Heartless appeared out of the Darkness. "Get going." Ruby nodded and vanished in a shower of rose petals, reappearing behind its hindmost right leg.

Kirito glanced at Asuna. "Ha ha, I get the fun job."

"Ha ha, I'm revoking your permission to enter my house."

"Shit!" Kirito muttered. "Sorry, Hun! Just joking!" He bolted towards the left leg, hoping that apology would be good enough for her.

Asuna rolled her eyes as he ran away. "Bitch," she muttered. She turned towards the Heartless as well, rapier at the ready. Well, let's get started."

Mercury nodded and rushed forward, channeling a blast of ice at an Oni that the Genie tagged with a Fire spell. His spinning attack froze some other Heartless solid as his foot hit the Oni and shattered the armor on its left forearm. As the mask turned snow white, Genie leaped into the air and launched an Aero spell that turned the mask clear just in time for a full power kick to blast the Heartless' head off. Meanwhile, Asuna had charged the frozen Heartless, her blade puncturing their frozen weakpoints one at a time as she danced between the icy statues.

Near the back of the large Heartless, Ruby and Kirito were doing their best to cut the monster's back legs off, but they kept thrashing around as it turned to attack the humans nearby. Ruby caught sight of Heathcliff raising his shield to deflect one of the scythe attacks, sparks flying as the black blade cleaved through the air above him. He responded with a powerful counter attack, burying his blade in the arm while it was near and taking a large chunk off of the Heartless' body. Not a fatal blow, but the Heartless noticed and began to focus entire rage on him. The scytes came down, forcing the armored man to jump to the side. His allies were not as lucky.

Ruby yelped as the leg slammed down right next to her. "Right, focus on myself!" she told herself before twirling her Keyblade in her left hand, transforming it into its scythe form. "Now, you're going to see who the scythe master is, Heartless!" She raised the weapon over her shoulder, a Firaga blazing just behind the head of the weapon. She roared and swung as hard as she could right at the joint of the Heartless. The monster roared in rage and lost its footing, sliding backwards. Ruby grinned and shot backwards, avoiding the falling creature. She slid to a stop a good distance away from Asuna and Mercury, and found Kirito had destroyed his target not long after she had.

Mercury, Genie, and Asuna noticed and regrouped with them. Ruby twirled her weapon overhead, summoning four Aerogas that could send all of them flying into the air. "Next, we take it out with a full power -"

The Heartless turned and shrieked at the group, ignoring the strikes to its body that came from the raid party. With hatred in its eyes, the creature glared at Ruby, hate that turned to fear as the scent of the Keyblade became apparent. Upon seeing this, the Heartless roared once more... and vanished.

The entire room went quiet, just staring at one another. "Uh... What?" Asuna wondered aloud.

Ruby frowned and let her spells vanish. "Did it just run away?" she asked angrily.

"Oh, come on, McFly? Chicken!?" Kirito taunted loudly. "Lame!"

Mercury sighed. "Well, at least we don't have to fight it," he pointed out with a shrug. "More energy for when... something else shows up."

"You think there's _more?_ " Kirito asked. He groaned. "Of course it'll be back."

The rest of the raid party had... different thoughts. "We won! Three cheers for Commander Heathcliff! Hip hip – hooray! Hip hip – hooray! Hip hip –!"

 _ **R W B Y**_

Kirito wanted to die. Well, not literally in the sword through the chest kind of way; more like he just hated everything that was happening. They'd been stuck in this room for, oh... three hours? "God, leave it to SAO to have a room where the boss not only glitches out and runs, but doesn't even flag the _goddamn_ door to open!" he screamed into the wide open room, getting a few people to echo his sentiments angrily.

Mercury wasn't worried, but he _was_ a little confused. Why hadn't Ruby just unlocked the door and gotten them all out of there? He assumed there was a reason, or at least more of one than her just wanting to play fetch with Genie. The rubber ball bounced a few times until the blue dog grabbed it and sprinted back towards her. "Yeah," Asuna agreed with Kirito, "I wanted the goddamn coat it was going to drop."

"Are we still not over that?" Kirito grumbled, exasperated. "I'm more than willing to give you that coat now."

"It's underleveled by seventy floors!" Asuna snapped before she began slapping him. "Those ones and zeroes are useless now!"

"I mean, it's not like you were going to get the final hit reward," Kirito protested under her assault. She began hitting harder. "I – I mean, it's not my fault it ran away and we're stuck here!"

"But you've got to look at the bright side!" Heathcliff supplied, his words momentarily stopping Asuna's abusive behavior.

"Did you find a way out?" someone shouted hopefully, their exhaustion clearly evident.

Heathcliff laughed. "Oh, oh, no. We are definitely going to die in here," he replied simply, earning a chorus of soft crying for his trouble. "But come on! We've all got to die sometime; at least we get to do it here, playing an awesome game!"

"Oh, come on, Sir. The only reason we're still playing this game is because we've got a gun to our heads. It's a dumpster fire," Asuna countered simply. "Half the players can't open the menu -" she glared at Kirito as he began to laugh under his breath. "The tutorial is terrible, crafting is seizure inducing, the teleport crystals don't work, people can kill each other by controlling someone else's menu when they're asleep, all the enemies glitched out and got replaced with monsters most players can't even kill, and -"

"Okay, that is enough. It's – it's groundbreaking technology, Asuna! Brand new, never before tested! For God's sake, it made an entire other world _real_! A fictional world, breathing all around us!"

"Not very well. We've been trapped in here for hours!" someone pointed out.

"It is literally the first of its kind!" Heathcliff screamed at the crowd.

"Hey, I'm with you, Old Man. I love this game, despite its, uh... shortcomings," Kirito supplied earnestly. "In here, I can be the coolest guy in the world. Out there I... uh..."

"Sweetie, it's okay. We all know you aren't cool," Asuna said, patting his back.

"On _that_ note," Kirito muttered angrily, "I love this place because it gives me a real outlet for all the aggression I never got out there. I can say whatever I want, and these meathead idiots get laughed off for trying to fight me. But it's still a frickin' Gordian Knot of terrible design."

"Maybe you're all just too stupid to understand the systems!" Heathcliff screamed, his accent gone.

"He's getting real angry," Mercury pointed out from where he sat beside Ruby.

"Huh?" she asked, glancing over as she tossed the ball again. "What's going on? What time is it?"

Mercury sighed and began to ignore the screaming of Heathcliff. "Have you been paying any attention?" Mercury asked.

Genie ran up and dropped the ball. He panted happily before licking his jowls. "Well, no. But can you blame us?" he asked Mercury. "It's so _boring_ in here."

"Yeah, we've been here for days, Merc! _Days!_ " Ruby shouted. Mercury glared at her dryly. "I can't handle doing nothing like this!"

"It's been three hours, Red," Mercury responded with an eye roll. "And – wait, if you've thought it's been days, why didn't you just open the door?"

She stared at him, confused.

"Your Keyblade?" Mercury supplied.

"Oh! Right, they can open any door!" Genie realized. He laughed at himself. "Can't believe I forgot that. I feel dumb!"

"Crap, I forgot!" Ruby shouted, slapping her forehead. She jumped up. "We could've gotten out of here forever ago!"

Mercury sighed and fell to his back on the ground. "You are a child. A _child_." Mercury groaned and covered his eyes. "Just get us out of here so I can find Em."

"You got it, Buddy!" Ruby said, leaping to her feet. She walked over to the door, summoning her Keyblade to her hand. The shouting Heathcliff went suddenly silent as she passed, her whistling cutting through the shouting.

Heathcliff coughed once and asked, "What is -"

Ruby raised her Keyblade when she reached the exit door. "Okay, here we go!" She held the weapon above her head, summoning a swirling ball of light around the tip of the weapon.

"Seriously, what is –?" Heathcliff continued, his accent returned.

And then Ruby aimed the Keyblade at the door, shooting out a white beam of Light. After a moment, a loud unlocking noise echoed through the air and the door slid open. "What the hell!?" Asuna screamed, jumping to her feet. "You – Your weapon actually has admin privileges!?"

"Admin privileges!?" Heathcliff shouted, enraged. "Dammit, I know I never coded a Keyblade into this godforsaken game, and I would never give it admin privileges even if I did!"

Kirito's eyes widened. "Wait a goddamn second," he whispered under his breath. He slowly rose to his feet. "Did I just hear what I thought I heard?"

Mercury glanced over. "Yes, she opened the door. We can move on -"

"No, about – Goddammit, I really hope I'm right about this," Kirito said, putting his hand on his sword's handle. He sighed, then turned around and sprinted with his sword aimed directly at Heathcliff's throat. The blade stopped an inch from his neck, colliding with an invisible wall. A purple hexagon sprang into existence next to Heathcliff's head, with the words 'Immortal Object' inscribed within.

Ruby walked over through the once again stunned into silence room. "So, what's going on?"

"Commander... What's going on!?" Asuna finally asked, wide eyed.

"Uh... This glitch! It... it saved me from this _assassin's_ blade! I... He..."

"Commander... What. The fuck. Is that?"

Heathcliff sighed and his accent vanished once again. "So that's not flying, huh?" he asked. He sighed. "Eh, can't fault a guy for trying."

"I am so lost," Ruby muttered, glancing between Kirito and Heathcliff.

"Oh, good. So it's not just me," Genie sighed in relief.

"You wanna tell 'em? Or should I?" Kirito asked, sheathing his blade and glaring at the armored warrior.

"No, by all means. You seem to have this whole thing figured out," Heathcliff said, holding his hand out and bowing slightly. "Wouldn't want to step on your _big moment_."

"What is going on, Edgelord?" Mercury wondered, edging closer to this bubbling confrontation.

"Well, it turns out the good Commander here has been hiding something from us. Something so dark, so sinister, that it would shock you to your very core!" Kirito explained as seriously as he could. "For you see, this whole time, Commander Heathcliff has actually been... Kayaba Akihiko!"

Mercury nodded slowly, then sighed. "Who?" he asked.

Kirito stammered and turned, flustered, towards Merc. "I – what!? Really!?" Kirito shouted, his surprise turning to rage. "Kayaba! The creator of _this_ game? Inventor of the NerveGear?"

"Nerve...Gear?" Ruby wondered.

"The guy who trapped us in this game for two years!" Kirito snapped, now at the end of his rope.

Mercury, Genie, and Ruby traded a look. "Ooooh..." they muttered. It was a guy who was responsible for this world's troubles. Troubles that none of them were even vaguely aware of or connected to, really. "We're in a game? I mean! Uh! Right, Kayaba! You see, we always called him... Bad Game Maker?" Ruby supplied as best she could. "Kind of, uh, forgot his name! Yeah! That's it!"

Kirito glared at her. "You really are the blonde's sister," Asuna muttered beside him.

"Well, now that I'm found out anyways, there are a few important things I would like to say," Kayaba said. He gestured at all of the warriors around him. "First,with what every content creator has ever wanted to say to their audience... Fuck... _all y'all_. Do you know what it was like leading you people? Do you know how many of you died screaming _Leroy Jenkins?_ More than that idiot today, I'll tell you that much!" He turned around and slammed his shield into the chest of someone trying to sneak up and stab him. "You idiots, you morons! You lack the pattern recognition to see that attacking me isn't going to work! By some leap in logic no mere mortal can understand, you tried what Mister Delightful here showed _wouldn't work!_ Jesus, I – You know, give me a second." The entire room, save for Kirito, Mercury, Ruby, and Genie suddenly went stiff as a board and hit the ground. "There, now I don't have to teal with you idiots doing things." He glanced over at Mercury, Ruby, and Genie. "That... should have affected you, even if you logged in without my permissions, I..." he trailed off. "I see. The World Seed."

"The _what_?" Asuna asked as Kirito knelt beside her, checking if she was okay.

 _The Heart of an Unborn World_ , Mercury remembered, and his heart skipped a beat. "You have it?" Mercury wondered, eyes wide. He took a step forward. "You have to give it to -"

"I will do no such thing," Kayaba responded in disgust. "Give my life's work to... well, I guess you don't want everyone to know, do you? I guess I can give you that much."

"Okay, now it's my turn to be confused," Asuna said, her eyes towards Merc and Ruby. "What secret do you guys share with Kayaba?"

"Other than how to best kill my soul? Well – " Kirito was cut off before he could explain.

"You had a soul?" Kayaba gasped in surprise.

"Shut up, old man!" Kirito snapped. "Yeah, unlike you, I had one. And unlike you, I never killed anyone that didn't deserve it. You, though? You've killed hundreds of us!"

"As if you care about _them_ ," Kayaba said, gesturing around at everyone. "No, you – for all your goddamn, annoying faults –, you're like me."

"Oh, I can already tell I don't like where this is going," Asuna muttered from Kirito's lap.

Kayaba continued, smirking. "You're a brilliant mind burdened by... well, to say _animals_ would be cruel to animals," he said, nodding at Genie.

"Oh, I agree," Kirito said as he carefully placed Asuna's head down. "On the other hand, at least they have the bravery to fight and risk dying. 'Waaah, look at me. I have a shield that can block anything and a sword that deals infinity plus one damage and can cut through anything. Even Wolverine claws and shit because I am so cooooooool!' Sound about right, Kayaba, or was it too low pitched?"

"Truly, you are the voice of a generation," Kayaba muttered. He snarled and raised his shield as Mercury suddenly shot forward, fire exploding between them.

"Give me. The World Seed," Mercury demanded, shoving as hard as he could against the unbreakable item. "Or I'm going to kill you."

Kayaba's eyes widened. "W-wow. I just got through how this wasn't going to work!" he said. "I am _immortal_ in this game!"

Mercury's eyes narrowed. "Won't stop me," he growled.

"Fight me, then. One on one," Kirito shouted. Mercury glanced over his shoulder but kept pushing against Kayaba's shield. "Just you, me, and none of your bullshit GM safety nets."

Kayaba raised an eyebrow. "And you get..?"

"You let everyone go and shut down this dumpster fire," Kirito said. He glanced over at Mercury. "And you give this knockoff Sonic character what he wants."

"You just want to cut this off 25 floors early?" Kayaba asked. He stepped to the side and Mercury yelped before barely avoiding falling on his face. "Sounds a bit anticlimactic to me, but okay."

"Yeah, I'm with the Commander. You love it here, why do you want to leave!?" Asuna shouted in confusion.

Kirito glanced first at Mercury, Ruby, and Genie, then down at Asuna. "Like I said, I love it here. I'm everything I want to be in here," Kirito said. "But... Dumb and Dumber and all their friends, they are more interested in helping us than whatever it is they're trying to do. I'm an asshole, and I hate everyone in here, but... Shut up and fight me again. I've got something to fight for this time, so it's not going to end the same way."

Kayaba grinned. "Careful. You're starting to sound like them," he said before drawing his weapon. "Soft and stupid."

"At least I'm not like you anymore," Kirito responded before drawing his swords. He looked over at the others. "Let me do this myself."

"I want a piece of him!" Mercury growled.

Ruby grabbed his arm. "You've got it," she said, her grip forcing Mercury to back down.

Kirito smiled. "Thanks... Merc. Ruby." Then he charged Kayaba, slashing with his swords one after the other. Mercury glared angrily, wanting nothing more than to charge in and fight. He wanted to break this guys legs and make him listen. Make him hand the Seed over. Ruby's hold on his arm tightened, a silent threat that she could easily stop him. So he let the fight happen.

Kirito was, for once in his life, silent. He slashed at Kayaba's head, but the game maker dodged easily. The sword in his left hand came up quickly, only to slash across the shield's face. Kayba shoved back, forcing Kirito to spin to the side to avoid losing his footing, then raise his swords to take the incoming attack. "You know, your 'friends' have some big secrets, right?" Kayaba asked when their swords slammed into each other, sparks flying as the edges pushed against each other. "Huge. Ones I didn't even believe were possible until they asked for the Seed."

Kirito thought about it for a moment while keeping his guard up. Finally: "What, that they can log in and out of this game whenever they want?" he asked. He slid to the side and slashed upward with both weapons. The tips collided with the shield. "Or that they aren't exactly from our world."

Kayaba's shield dipped, and Kirito took advantage. His sword slashed across Kayaba's face causing the man to scream in pain and frustration. He backpedaled and slapped the sword to the side with his shield on reflex. Kirito smirked and returned to a ready stance. "Oh, did my big brain confuse you, Mister God?"

"How?" Kayaba asked, clutching at the red mark on his face. "How could you figure that out!?"

"Besides the fact that they have Keyblades and don't know Kingdom Hearts is a video game?" Kirito asked dryly. "How about the fact that they use magic, which the game literally doesn't allow? These idiots aren't smart enough to code that in."

"No offense, right?" Ruby asked.

"... Oh, or that they bleed? Actually bleed, not the whole 'red lines' bull you programmed in? They've never seen a tenth of the movies I reference, Red over there didn't know it was a game? So, in the words of Batman – or me – quoting Sherlock Holmes – or me, but dumber – "

"What a fucking ego," Asuna muttered, rolling her eyes.

" 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth,'" Kirito said, grinning. He charged again, sword stabbing at Kayaba's unprepared head. The man snarled and jumped to the side, barely avoiding the sword that cut through his hair.

"Wait, they're _aliens?_ " Asuna shouted from the ground.

"Later, Dear," Kirito said as Kayaba slammed his shield into the swordsman's chest and sent him stumbling backwards. "I'm a bit busy fighting for the greater good!"

"The greater good? The greater good!? I am your _wife!_ " Asuna screamed angrily. "I am the greatest good you're ever going to have!"

"Nice! _Incredibles!"_ Kayaba shouted before he tried to cut Kirito in half.

"What?" Asuna, Ruby, and Mercury asked.

"Nice!" Genie agreed.

Kayba glared at Kirito. "You love that?"

Kirito shrugged. "She completes me... somehow." He slashed at Kayaba again, the duel starting up once more. Blades flashed in the light, colliding with each other as they tried to kill one another.

"You know, I've always enjoyed killing people that deserve it. A little. Maybe there's something wrong with me, I don't know," Kirito began as he slashed his swords apart, forcing the shield out of the way before pulling back with his left sword. "But I'm more than enjoying this one!" He roared and stabbed his forward, knowing within his heart of hearts that he had just won.

And then the blade shattered against a large blade made of shifting Darkness. He was blown backwards as out of a black portal appeared a young woman with green hair and glowing yellow eyes. She twirled the blade she had used once before dismissing it and placing the physical weapon on her hip. The entire room was silent. "Wait, they're aliens!?" Someone in the crowd suddenly screamed.

"Em!?" Mercury shouted, tearing out of Ruby's grip. "Em, it's me! Merc? Your lovable partner in crime."

She ignored him, eyes turning towards Kayaba instead. "I have a bad feeling about this," Kayaba mumbled worriedly. She raised her arm towards him and the world for him disappeared. For everyone else, they could only see Kayaba go stiff as a board as all of his senses were cut off by an illusion. Mercury gritted his teeth and sprinted towards her. If he could just touch her he could save her! A circle of solid Darkness appeared around her and Kayaba before he could make it and he slammed face first into it, bouncing off with twice the force he had collided.

Kirito scrambled to his feet and put himself between Asuna and Emerald. "Why do I get the feeling Emerald over here has been 'Mathew Bennell'ed?" he asked, eyes narrowing on her.

"Body snatched is a pretty good comparison," Genie agreed, crouching to get ready for a fight. "She isn't in control."

Emerald, despite the readiness of everyone to fight and Mercury's insistent pleading that she look at him, ignored all of them. She walked around to stand behind Kayba and raised her hands to either side of his head, guiding the illusion she had placed him under. She stood there, stock still, for a few minutes. Then she pulled away, allowing Kayaba's mind to clear. "What? Where -" Then she buried one of her blades of Darkness in his Heart. Kayaba let out a silent scream as his body was invaded by Darkness, the force spreading throughout his body through his arteries and veins. Emerald took a step back and turned away.

"Al!"

She paused and turned to glare at Mercury. "Come on. You know you love me," he said, putting on the best cocky grin he could manage when faced with her marionette of a body. He stood up and held his arms out to her, inviting her to come with them. If the blonde idiot could break out of this, then Em could do it no problem. "Em, you're stronger than him."

She met his gaze for a while before a black Corridor of Darkness appeared behind her. She blinked once, then turned and marched through the portal. Mercury remained frozen the entire time, unable to do anything as she left. He just fell to his knees the moment the portal shut, feeling utterly hollow.

But things had not stopped just because he had lost her. The Darkness that had entered Kayaba had continued to spread throughout his body to the point that the noise of his screams had vanished, replaced with silence as he thrashed where he stood. "What the hell did she do to him?" Kirito muttered carefully raising his swords. Kayaba, now little more than a human shaped pit of Darkness, fell to his knees and clutched at his head, where his gray hair was being consumed by the Darkness, leaving only his eyes as they once were. And when even those vanished under the Darkness, he went silent. The entire room held their breath, staring at the man shaped void. Kirito turned his gaze towards Ruby, who had raised her Keyblade in sword form to make it easier to defend with.

"I'm kind of new to all this, too, but... I think he's becoming a Heartless," Ruby explained. She moved forward and pulled the stunned Mercury behind her and Genie. She glanced at Merc. "Mercury, you have to wake up. You're a sitting duck like -"

There was a wave of Darkness at that moment, calmly pushing at everyone in the room. But as calm as it behaved, there was a hidden strength behind it. Ruby looked at Kayaba just in time to see that his body was subtly changing shape. The shield on his left arm was melting into it and growing large blades all along the edge, each serrated like the teeth of a shark. The armor became bone white with red and black lines crisscrossing while reaching up to a bone mask forming across his head in the shape of a crown. The silvery sword in his hand lengthened and widened, though it retained its shape. Finally, the Heartless emblem grew out of the shield, another shard of bone in a sea of Darkness.

The new Heartless cast its gaze around, quietly observing the room. Ruby swallowed a pit of worry in her throat; if it attacked someone in the room, she didn't know if she could anticipate which it would be and be able to get there in time. And if she didn't, that would just be another Heartless out to attack everyone else here. But the creature remained where it was, eyes searching everyone before settling on Ruby. She felt her heart beating in her ears and raised the Keyblade, the source of its fascination, to prepare for a fight. Instead, the creature launched towards Kirito, surprising everyone.

Everyone except Asuna, which was made apparent when he jumped in front of Kirito at the last moment, taking the attack square in the chest. " _NO!_ " Kirito screamed, dropping his weapons and catching Asuna as she tipped backwards.

Ruby gasped in horror and rushed forward, eyes glowing a brighter silver as she watched Asuna glitch, barely holding on despite the massive red wound on her chest. The Keyblade slammed into the shield, caught between two of the serrated spikes. The Heartless shrieked in rage and shoved, driving Ruby backwards. She pushed back, sliding to a stop before she could hit Asuna and Kirito. Summoning all her strength, she roared, pushing back and sending a wave of Light magic cascading from her eyes. The Heartless was hit head on, the wave picking up the Heartless in its burning grip. Genie saw and leaped into the air, launching an Aero spell that pushed the paralyzed players out of the Heartless' path, then cast a barrier around their group and the Heartless, protecting those unable to defend themselves from a painful death.

Kirito wasn't paying any attention, though. "Asuna, wh- why – I – Don't..." he begged, eyes filling up with tears. "Asuna..."

"Oh, it's my turn to make you cry," Asuna said, smiling despite the obvious pain she was in. "Cry your... little... bitch... tears." And then her data shattered, Darkness swirling around the Heart she left behind. Kirito reached out to it, trying to grab it. "Asuna, you can't..."

Ruby ran up before the Heartless could heal. "Do you trust me?"

"No," Kirito snapped. "I just met you!"

Ruby nodded, a pained and worried look in her eyes. "Fine. You want a chance to save her, no matter what it takes?" she asked, clearly uncomfortable with what she was about to do. "Even if it hurts you more than anything?"

He froze, dark eyes searching Ruby's face to try and find out what this could mean. Finally, still having no clue about any of it, he nodded. "I'd do anything."

Ruby nodded. "Then get up, and don't get angry when I do this," she replied before turning on her heel and cutting through the Heart floating in front of Kirito. The Darkness swirling around the Heart was burned away by the Light the woman wielded, purifying the core of Asuna's being of the Heartless' taint. The Heart floated for a moment before floating off, leaving them behind before it disappeared completely.

Seeing Asuna's Heart vanish completely, Kirito felt a surge of panic and anger. His eyes widened and he picked up his sword, enraged and swinging at Ruby. She blocked the attack with a quick movement and met his gaze with a solemn stare. Taking a moment to let him calm, she finally said, "You need to find her, I can't help you with that, not right now. There are things I have to do first. But if you find her... and... and you kill the thing that looks like her, or you somehow can make her feel again what she felt for you right there? She'll come back to you, I promise."

Kirito pushed against her, teeth bared and eyes filled with rage. "You... you..." He sighed and backed away, hitting his foot against something on the ground. He looked down, finding a thin rapier with a green basket. He bent down, lifting it slowly in his off hand, staring at the blade with a longing look. Finally he turned to look at the Heartless, which had floated back to its feet. "If she never shows up again... I have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you Do aliens get that?" He turned away from her and decided to channel his rage constructively, rushing at the Heartless.

Ruby shut her eyes and thought of Raven, how she had sacrificed her own life to save her husband and her family, and how Morrigan still couldn't get rid of that connection forged at the end of her life. "You'll find him again," she said to the absent Asuna before opening her eyes and setting them on the Heartless, with whom Kirito was trading blows once more. She twirled the Keyblade above her head, causing it to unfold into its scythe form. She began to run towards the fight, then stopped and looked around at everyone. "Uh, don't tell anyone what you saw here." Then, without waiting for a response from anyone, she sprinted into the fight. Her scy

Mercury pushed himself up. Em did this because he couldn't get through to her, so this was his responsibility. Asuna had been killed because he hadn't saved her. He charged the Heartless, too, black flames licking his boot.

He and Ruby hit the monster at the same time, rushing past Kirito and attacking from both sides. The Heartless' shield came up and turned sideways, catching both attacks at once. When Ruby's attack had bounced off, the shield turned and blades twisted around Merc's leg, catching him. The Heartless spun around, taking the assassin screaming with the shield. Then the Heartless threw him and the shield, the blades hurtling towards Ruby. The Keyblade wielder narrowed her eyes and ran towards the attack, holding her weapon over her shoulder. She slammed the base of the scythe into the ground at an angle and polevaulted up, freezing the point of contact when she reached the apex. The shield stopped suddenly and Merc was released, hitting the ground and rolling away. Ruby then dismissed the weapon and resummoned it to her hand, running across the shield face as it fell before launching into an overhead slash at the Heartless.

The creature's blade came up and took the attack, the massive force hitting it sending powerful winds all around the arena. Kirito held his arms up, blocking dust from hitting his eyes, then charged the Heartless while it was distracted with deflecting Ruby's next volley of lightning fast blows. He jumped in as her attack was blocked by the sword and she was forced to flip over the Heartless. Kirito stabbed at the monster's armored chest with Asuna's rapier, angling the weapon towards one of the thin breaks between the bone plates that protected the Heartless. One of the monster's eyes glanced at him from between the peaks of the crown and it flicked its off hand up. Kirito barely had time to throw himself out of the way as he realized what was coming, the spinning shield flying just over his head and onto the monster's arm.

Mercury seen this coming, of course; the creature wouldn't toss its most valuable defense in a fight against four opponents without knowing it could summon the shield back at the wave of a hand. He knelt next to Genie. "If I get it to throw the shield again, can you freeze it to the ground long enough for us to kill it?"

The dog frowned but nodded. "Well, Silver, I'll do my best."

"Thanks, Blue," Merc said, petting the dog's head before standing up. He took a deep breath and charged the Heartless again, leaping over Kirito as his swords were countered by the shield again. Mercury spun in the air, bringing his heel down in an axe kick aimed at the Heartless' head. The creature turned to dodge Ruby's next attack, bringing the sword around to block the kick. The creature shoved back quickly and turned its shield up to take Ruby's next attack while swinging at Kirito, forcing the swordsman to roll backwards to avoid losing his head.

"Make it throw the shield again," Mercury commanded. "I have a plan." He rushed forward again, dropping to his back to slide beneath the shield that came around to slam into his chest. He went right beneath the Heartless, spinning when he was between its legs. The Heartless stumbled as his ankles crashed into its own, putting it off balance. The creature stumbled right towards Kirito's dual slash, barely managing to counter the attack with its massive sword while raising its shield up to deflect Ruby's attack. The pair of hits connecting at the same time further destabilized the Heartless and it spun away, its cape of Darkness swirling as it struggled to find its footing again. But find it did, slamming its shield down and stopping its momentum, setting its feet and glaring at the three humans now lined up with one another.

"I want the last hit," Kirito snarled as they glared at the Heartless. "He killed Asuna... I kill him back."

"It's a deal," Mercury agreed, fists clenched tight.

He and Ruby rushed forward, trying to distract the Heartless and get it to throw its shield. The creature backpedaled as they fought, slowly drawing towards the wall the Genie had created. Its sword flashed to defend against Rub's constant attacks while its shield was always in Mercury's way to absorb his kicks. Spells collided with the Heartless' guard, their energies uselessly splashing against the ground around their bout. Sparks flew as metal clashed and scraped against each other. The serrated teeth of the shield carved away the leather of the boot on Merc's foot, leaving just his prosthesis and weapon. But it wasn't enough to get it to throw its shield. "From the front, opposite sides," Ruby ordered as they reset again. Merc nodded and rushed forward, charging his foot with black flames as he had earlier while Ruby attacked from the right. And, just as before, the shield twisted to take both attacks, capturing Merc's leg.

"Oh, this isn't going to be fun," he muttered as the creature spun him around again and threw him right at Ruby. Merc detached his leg, hitting the ground and letting the shield soar over him as he rolled across the ground. Again, Ruby leaped over the attack, though this time she landed on top of it and launched an Aeroga above her, sending the shield to the ground with the force of her spell. The Genie's Blizzaga froze it to the ground the moment it fell.

Kirito made his move then, rushing forward, sword slashing at the Heartless' throat. Its own weapon came around to block the attack, but this left it open to Ruby, who came in at full speed. Its off arm vanished in an explosion of light, and the Heartless responded violently. Its sword waved around erratically, though with the full force of the Heartless' body behind it. Kirito raised his swords, taking the attack, but the blades in his hands shattered and he was tossed back. He rolled to his feet as quickly as he could and sprinted towards the Heartless. "SWORD!"

Ruby complied, tossing the now sword-form Crescent Rose to him. He deserved this much, she knew, so she would let him have it. The Keyblade landed in his hand and she slid behind the Heartless, slamming her foot into the back of its knee. The monster hit the ground, its sword going wide in a vain effort to compensate, which gave Kirito the opening to bury the Keyblade in the monster's chest.

And then everything went white.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Emerald walked out of the Corridor of Darkness into a world vastly different from the one she had left, inside of a modern building with computers connected to a tube holding an unconscious man with a helmet over his head. Despite these differences, this world was one very closely connected to the world she had just left. He was dressed in a long lab coat over white button up shirt with a black tie. Coming from the tube was a long, thin IV tube plugged into his arm. On the tube was a name: Kayaba Akihiko. Beside the tube was a collection of medical equipment; the heart monitor was beeping as usual, but the brainwave monitor was a long, singular note. But that made sense; after all, his Heart had been consumed by Darkness while in the body he had created for his 'game.' This one remained uncorrupted by that Darkness, but without its Heart it would remain exactly as it was, empty and barely alive.

Emerald turned away from him, far more interested in the information she had found when guiding his illusion before turning him into a Heartless. She moved towards a large computer in the back of the room and pressed the power button for the monitor. The screen beeped, then came to life. The screensaver was a picture of the man inside the tube holding up a box for a video game. Sword Art Online. Emerald clicked on one of the icons and began to delve into the maze of his file sorting system as she had seen him do in his mind, searching for the one thing that she had been sent to this world to find.

She soon found it. The data for something called the World Seed, a program that Kayaba had found on his computer before starting his magnum opus. Once, he had thought it simply was a gift to help design a massive game world. At the end of his life, he understood it much better The World Seed was the ability to build a real world, though not the Hearts of any real denizens. He could craft shells, monsters without souls that behaved according to his own whims. Monsters, but not people. For those, he could simply send people into those shells, special ones he marked as 'players.'That he did not understand the program when he used it was why people died in it – they were dying in a real world. In the years since, he had corrected that issue in various altered copies of the program. It was more of a game world, now. But this original program, the true World Seed, remained. Impossible to delete or remove just as it was impossible for him to create it.

But taking it, that was an option.

Emerald reached towards the screen, concentrating on the Darkness to create a small portal. The flaming void sprang into being after a moment, swirling around in front of the computer, and she reached in. Emerald quickly managed to grab what was inside and she pulled it out. The portal shut, leaving her with a glowing white sphere of energy. On the computer the original World Seed's data had vanished, replaced with an error. Emerald looked at the swirling Light in her hand, the World Seed's physical form, and in her deepest Heart she screamed. She wanted to shove it back or toss it out into the void, anything to keep it out of OJ's hands. But she couldn't. Instead her body began to type on the screen, entering the code to destroy Aincrad and everyone within it. Then she just began to walk away on its own.

"But Mercury is still in there!" she screamed into the Darkness.

And for a moment she stopped, her legs finally listening to her, the Light exploding around her and the wall keeping her from herself coming down. She already knew she didn't have long. The Darkness was already closing in on her and the wall slowly coming back up. She turned and set the World Seed down, going through the computer, desperately searching for something she could use to save Mercury from the dying world. The Darkness encroached, faster and faster now. Emerald couldn't find anything. As the Light began to fade entirely, barely more than a single, lone star in the Darkness, she found it. A command, so readily available that she had overlooked it. It would force the log out of every player in Sword Art Online as soon as a boss floor was cleared. "Merc... you better find me," she whispered as she started the program. Then the wall was up and her eyes returned to their yellow.

Emerald watched her body grab the World Seed once more before it turned away and opened another Corridor. But she could live with that. After all, now she knew Merc would be okay for another day, all because of her. Now he owed her another one.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Mercury, Ruby, and Genie looked around, very confused. One minute, they had been watching Kirito bury Crescent Rose into the chest of Kayaba's Heartless, and the next they had been sitting in the Gummi Ship. "Uh... What just happened?" Ruby wondered aloud, her brain suffering disconnect from suddenly having everything change around her. She didn't even have the benefit of some weird portal to segue with, or a fainting spell. Just one image, noise, smell immediately replaced with another. Not what a brain is built to process.

Mercury was clutching the arms of his seat as tight as he could, similarly frazzled by the sudden shift in his sensory input. He looked straight up out of the viewport and felt his stomach spin. "Whatever it was, Aincrad is _gone_." Ruby looked up after he said this and her jaw fell open. Instead of a castle floating in the Darkness between worlds, there was just... nothing. Empty space between the stars. "What the heeeeell?"

"For once, I'm a little lost," Genie admitted, staring up as well. He glanced back down. "But I think the world we were on just vanished and we got sent back here instead of just dying."

Upon hearing that, Ruby yelped and raised her hand, summoning her Keyblade. "Good. Didn't lose it with the world..." she sighed.

"Certainly better than the alternative," Mercury said. He slowly let go of the seat's arms and tried to calm their shaking.

Ruby looked over at Genie, who was reshaping himself into his normal form. "Did everyone else survive, too?" she wondered, eyes worried. She glanced back at her Keyblade. "If Kirito had this, is he still alive? Would it have come back if he got destroyed?"

"Best I can guess... yes?" the blue man supplied cautiously. "Honestly, unless I cast the magic, I'm a little fuzzy on how it words. Those that can't do, teach. And I can _do_ , so why would I have to understand or teach?"

"I guess that's fair," Mercury said as he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. "You were created with magic, so it's not like you're smart enough to be smart enough to figure it out like the rest of us."

"Ha ha," Genie muttered, tossing the silver haired assassin a glare. "Hilarious. I haven't heard a joke that funny since the roast of Dennis Leary."

"Whatever that means," Ruby sighed, also resting in her chair. She eventually opened her eyes and grabbed the ship's steering. She sighed, exhausted from what had just happened. "We should get going."

"But we didn't find the World Seed," Mercury protested, forcing his eyes open. "We have to keep looking."

"Al probably already has it, Silver," Genie said, floating over and placing a comforting hand on Merc's shoulder. "And until we regroup, we aren't going to find her."

Merc stared at the Genie for a while, taking in those words. Finally, he sighed in disappointment as he admitted, "We should get going." Ruby nodded and pushed forward on the accelerator.

"We'll find her, Silver," Genie said as the ship began to fly away.

Mercury sighed and leaned back in his chair. "But I couldn't snap her out of it here."

"But she didn't kill you." Mercury looked back up at Genie. The blue man suddenly turned into a square jawed man with well done hair. "Small miracles, Lana. Small... miracles."

Mercury snorted and shut his eyes, hoping he could drift off to sleep. "Sure, Blue. Sure. Just... wake me when we get back. Hope the Blondes and Keyboy got luckier than us." He placed his elbow over his eyes and laughed bitterly. "... Who am I kidding? We'd have to have _good_ luck for that."


	28. Battle of Midgar

**AN:**

 **Hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long. I've been doing applications, helping set up for a family party, helping with the party, getting sick for a week, attending my sister's competition for a week, her confirmation. Long story short, I've been writing this when I could as often as I could, and I just got to finish. Thanks for your patience.**

 **Now, to respond.**

 **To Gamelover41592: I thought it was a fun wrap up for the Abridged world. Don't worry, it's not the last we'll see of Kirito. After the other worlds are finished up, we'll get another chance for everyone to interact.**

 **To Chretner: Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately. I'm glad I could give you a birthday present titled Happy Birthday, that's a real fun coincidence. I'm glad your KHD &D is going well. My hero D&D wrapped up a little while ago when schedules conflicted, but I'm setting up a more standard fantasy setting for a smaller group that I'm really looking forward to. I'm really happy that you like how I did Genie so far. No exaggeration, but every time I write a line for him I am constantly triple guessing myself asking if it's even remotely like the _Aladdin_ movie.**

 **To Soulofnone911: So, replicas. The way that I've decided to shoehorn in the Kingdom Hearts lore for the Aincrad world goes like this: the entire world is essentially a replica, with every being on it constituting a replica. Players have had their Hearts and Souls essentially beamed to these replicas. But yes, if the world of 202X Japan in SAO:A had all the weird pseudo-science of Ansem the Wise's Heart research, they could summon everyone's Hearts back to their real bodies to get them out of Sword Art Online. As for Asuna, since she was in a Replica when she became a Heartless, it's functioning a bit like how Kairi's body behaved in KH1. Since she didn't become a Heartless in that body, it's still in its coma. Her Replica body is her Nobody, and once she's recompleted she'll be in her Replica body until the connection can be cut and she can be returned to her real body. Sorry for the long winded explanation, but if you have any more questions, feel free to message me and I'll do my best to explain.**

 **To Guest: I'm happy that this story has been awesome so far! I'm excited to write more of it!**

 **To Crazytony: SMHS is some of your favorite stories so far? That's really high praise! I can't wait to show all of you what happens next!**

 **To Goldey9058: I try really hard to make the Abridged parts funny and spiritually true to the show. It was a big part of how I bonded with my best friends in college, so getting it right means a lot to me.**

 **To Guest(2): I honestly had not thought of that until you posted your review, but now I can't get over it. The maniac who wanted to ignite a massive, world ending war is the closest Merc can get to a real dad. Well, I guess it's true: Nobody is all bad.**

 _ **Chapter 28: Battle of Midgar**_

Jaune, Yang, and Sora moved swiftly but cautiously through the flaming streets of a large city on Gaia. There was a lot of smoke, wrecked cars, broken buildings... and a few bodies. They hadn't run into any of the Heartless that were responsible for any of this, yet, but they knew they had to be around somewhere. And, if prior experience was anything to go by, the largest concentration of the monsters would invariably be wherever Cloud and Tifa were. It happened every time. Worse, something or someone must have left those bodies behind.

An explosion echoed through the air, but they couldn't see the source. "What the hell is going on here?" Jaune asked, holding his Keyblade in front of him in both hands. The magical weapon was now equipped with the Keychain Sora had given him to transform it into a pin tumbler key with two rods jutting out from the top of the guard, bandages covering the bottom third of the weapon. It had a red handle with a gunmetal guard embedded with tiny, circular indents. This weapon was also significantly longer than the Kingdom Key, and made Jaune's muscles feel as if they were bursting with power, almost like he was back at his prime when he wielded the No Name Keyblade.

Gunfire echoed out, followed by screams. "Whatever all this is, it has to have something to do with Sephiroth," Yang growled, slamming her fists together and glaring past the smoke. "Which means I'll get to take him down when we get to the middle of all this."

"If he's anything like I remember, we'll need to work together. Especially now that he has the Black Materia," Sora said worriedly. "He almost killed me tons of times before he had something that powerful, and now? I don't want any of us getting permanently hurt when so much is riding on us." He pulled the Master Keeper up to his shoulder. "The sooner we find Cloud, the sooner we can get rid of Sephiroth."

"Why does Cloud need to be the one who does it?" Yang whined in disappointment. "I wanna do it..."

"They're... connected, remember?" Jaune pointed out. He dismissed his Keyblade for a moment and began to flex his stiff hand. "He needs to overcome his Darkness himself; we just need to be there for him."

"That's right," Sora said somberly as he looked around for trouble. "They -" He held his hand out, palms facing the others to tell them to stop. The air around his hand swirled with black and white energy that congealed into No Name in his now clenched fist. Sora twirled the weapons for a moment then readied them in front of him, glaring at the intersection in front of them. Jaune and Yang glanced at each other, then readied themselves as well, waiting for whatever was coming. After a few seconds, a small group of people screaming as they charged into the intersection, followed quickly by an actual river made up of Heartless. One of the people sprinting away held a familiar massive sword. "And there they are. There's that ol' Keyblade Master luck! And we only have to fight one Demon Tower!"

"Didn't you say those could only appear somewhere the Darkness was almost guaranteed to win?" Jaune asked worriedly.

"And given how swingy that luck is, how long until we're each fighting three?" Yang wondered, torn between worried and excited.

"Oh, I think you guys could handle that on your own," Sora said with a grin. The grin slowly vanished and he held his weapons out to his sides. "Let's go." He sprinted forward, vanishing and leaving only a path of flames and ice left by his Keyblades' tips dragging along beside him. Jaune and Yang followed as quickly as they could, shattering the street where they pushed off.

Sora jumped between the river of Heartless and Cloud's group, Firaga and Blizzaga exploding from the edge of his dual Keyblades. The Heartless at the spear's tip of the Demon Tower exploded under the weight of the spells, dozens vanishing instantly and the rest of the Tower blown backwards by geyser of steam. Sora tossed a smile over his shoulder. "I've got your backs!" he told the surprised group of freedom fighters. A pair of golden shapes blurred past Sora, Jaune on the right and Yang on the left with their weapons trailing between them. Jaune slashed upward as Yang's fist flew upward, twin Aero spells sending the rest of the tide flying away and giving everyone some breathing room.

"Aurora!" Jaune shouted, his buckler exploding with a burning wall of deadly energy. He and Yang sprinted forward, Yang in front with a Blizzaga spell that froze the swirling tower's base to the ground. Jaune leaped over her, spinning with his arms outstretched. Fenrir and the glowing buckler carved through the Heartless making up the Demon Tower. Shadows vanished, replaced with glowing Hearts that spiraled to the sky. Jaune continued carving all the way through the Tower, carving off the top portion of the tower.

Sora appeared in the air above them, both Keyblades pointed at the now separated pieces of the swirling Demon Tower. The teeth of the Keyblades overlapped and a swirling orb of golden energy sparked off of both weapons. "Thundaza!" The air around them darkened as a beam of pure electricity the size of a truck exploded out of his Keyblades, vaporizing the remaining Heartless where they were. Sora's attack petered off after a moment he hit the ground a moment later, grinning. "See, you guys? I told you it wouldn't be a problem for us to handle that thing. I bet you guys could have done it yourselves," he said. He brought No Name up to his left shoulder and shrugged. "If we didn't have to hurry here, I'd have let you do it, too. I can't wait to see you guys in action."

"Nox," Jaune muttered, deactivating his buckler. He sighed and buried the tip of Fenrir in the ground so he could lean against the Keyblade. "Well, with you and Yang around there really isn't much we can't beat."

Yang smacked the back of his head. "I mean – Yeah. All three of us together can handle pretty much anything," Jaune said as he began gingerly rubbing the spot where the metal prosthetic had crashed into him. "Jeez, ow."

"Jaune? Yang?"

The group turned to see a very confused Cloud and Tifa standing in front of a group of people, all of them slightly stunned by the newcomers' display of power. "It is you!" Tifa shouted excitedly, rushing forward to hug the pair. Jaune and Yang were pulled into a tight embrace. She pushed them to arm's length. "It's nice to see someone else is surviving... all this." The smile disappeared and she looked around

And that was the point that Sora could no longer contain himself, confronted as he was by the faces of old friends he hadn't seen in years by this point. "CLOUD!" He sprinted forward, coming to a stop right in front of the now very confused blonde. Speaking of Cloud, he was slowly raising the Buster Sword and glancing at Yang and Jaune to see if he needed to defend himself from the crazy brunette. "I can't believe that we get to fight against Sephiroth together this time! You never let me do it before, you were all ' _Swing, Slash_ – Some fights you have to handle yourself!' Well, now you have to let me help you, Cloud!"

"Wha?"

Sora jumped to Tifa, narrowly avoiding a punch she threw at his head and resisting the powerful burst of wind that resulted. "And you're just as quick and fast as before! Do you think that you could still make an entire castle tremble with a kick! I mean, that is what happened the very first time that I met you. That was crazy! I'd only ever seen Keyblade Wielders do something that crazy before that. And then you helped Cloud stay Light when he was fighting Sephiroth!"

"And Yuffie! How goes the ninja training?" Sora shouted, jumping into the center of the confused group. "Oh, Cid! Wow, I haven't seen you in forever! Do you still build Gummi Ships, or are you making some other kind of space ship? I can't wait to see what you built this time!"

"Uh... who's your friend?" Cloud asked Yang and Jaune as he tossed a confused look at the overexcited Keyblade Wielder going around talking about a 'Radiant Garden Restoration Committee' and how they'd fix the city up in no time. "He's weird."

"And that's compared to you two," Tifa agreed. She crossed her arms and looked over at Yang and Jaune's almost... sad smiles. "Whoa, what's wrong?"

"He's just... You guys remind him of people he lost a long time ago," Yang half-lied.

"He's lost a lot of people. More than almost anybody I know," Jaune supplied somberly. "I could barely take losing one person. I don't know how he's survived."

Tifa and Cloud both looked over at him. "I can understand that," Tifa muttered under her breath, and Jaune realized she was right. She and Cloud had lost literally everyone from their childhood aside from each other.

"We helped him get the people responsible," Yang pointed out. "And we'll help you, too."

At that, Tifa's brow furrowed and a determined smirk stretched across her face. Even Cloud looked like he was close to smiling. "And you bet your materia we'll succeed."

"Sora, come here," Jaune muttered after a moment when he started bothering 'Yuffie' again. He walked over and dragged the Keyblade Master back. He got close to Sora's ear. "Sora, they don't remember you."

Sora stopped speaking, mouth frozen open. "Uh... right. I..." He sighed and righted himself, forcing a grin onto his face. "Right! Sorry, I just..." He shook his head and turned towards Cloud and Tifa, as well as the large dark skinned man with a gun for a hand that had moved over by them. "So, what exactly is happening here?"

"Sephiroth is attacking the city," Cloud explained, strapping his Buster Sword across his back. "Brought a ton of those Heartless things. He's trying to get to the top of Shinra's tower."

"They took some kind of ancient device from the north pole that would let him absorb the Black Materia's power," the dark skinned man explained. "Idiots thought they could use it as a trap."

Tifa clenched her fists and resisted the urge to punch a hole in something. "Instead, Sephiroth is going to cause another Nibelheim." She looked down the street, past swirling Heartless and flaming buildings. A massive building, taller than any of the others,rose into the sky. It was built atop dozens of factories, with golden lights covering the building and the blood red symbol of Shinra at the top. Deadly green smoke rose into the sky, the destructive power of Gaia's Heart burning to create energy. "We have to get there before him, maybe even destroy whatever it is he's trying to use... And then me and Cloud are going to rip his head off."

"Easier said than done, since Shinra's idiots keep attacking us," the gun handed man said.

Cloud nodded. "Barrett's right. We've been getting in fights or getting chased by these Heartless swarms since we got to Midgar," Cloud agreed sullenly. "The city was already burning when we got here, which means he's been here a while. Between the fights and trying to save the people we find, we've been struggling to catch up."

"Then I guess we'll have to hurry," Sora said. He glanced away from the group down the street and frowned. A half moment later, one of the buildings exploded and Sora was deflecting the worst of it. From the smoke and flames drove out a trio of large, dangerous looking tanks with their barrels pointed at the large group standing at the center of the road. There was another explosion not far away... then the sound of screaming.

"Dammit! This isn't helping," Tifa muttered worriedly, glancing over in the direction of the other explosion. "And those people need help."

"We'll split up, then," Barret said.

Cloud and Tifa glanced at him in surprise. "What? You two are the ones with a score to settle, and we won't be as much help as these guys. Someone needs to help those people, someone needs to stop the albino a-hole, and someone needs to watch your backs."

"Yang and I can catch up. Sora, you go with Cloud and Tifa. You three our best bet to handle Sephiroth if no one else can make it in time," Jaune said, summoning Fenrir to his hand. "And Yang and I can handle anything else that comes our way."

Tifa and Cloud traded a look, then grabbed Sora's arm. "Let's go," the brunette said.

Sora looked at her, then at Jaune and Yang. "You guys can handle anything that comes your way."

"You know it," Yang said, tossing him a thumbs up before turning towards the tanks. "Now, get going, Keyboy. And the rest of you, too. You're wasting time."

Sora smiled. "You got it," then turned and ran away with Cloud and Tifa towards the tower. "Jeez, this feels just like old times!"

"What?" Cloud and Tifa asked.

"You two are crazy," Barret said. He grinned. "But good crazy." He turned to the others. "Now, let's get going!"

Jaune and Yang watched them go for a moment, then looked over at the tanks. "Nice of them to not fire on us while we were talking," she said as she threw her arms to the side and activated Ember Celica.

Jaune raised his Keyblade in front of him. "Too bad we can't show them the same courtesy." The two ran forward, keeping an eye on the tanks' charging weapons. When the first one fired, the pair were more than ready. Jaune leaped forward first, using the flat of the Keyblade to send the explosive soaring straight up to explode harmlessly in the open air. He hit the ground beside Yang just as she brought her fist up and shot out a Reflect wall, easily deflecting the attack.

With their speed, the two quickly arrived at the tanks, knowing that meant the end of this fight. Yang stood between two of the tanks and leaped onto one of them, grabbing hold of the main barrel with both hands. With a mighty heave, her hair igniting and eyes turning a ruby red, she tore the barrel off of the tank and swung it back down, caving in the main body of the vehicle and severely damaging the tank. She turned on the other and leaped into the air, a flaming streak of death as she dodged the blast from the other tank. She raised the torn barrel over one shoulder and swiped at the tank as it reloaded, catching it on the side. The tank immediately flew through the air like a golf ball, tumbling through a building's second floor with a huge dent in its side and a twisted weapon that could no longer fire.

Jaune was doing just as well, sprinting to put one tank between him and the other. The one he was using as cover desperately tried to move out of the way and get far enough away that it could shoot him. Having struggled with that long enough, it decided to just run him over. Jaune raised the Keyblade in front of him, the flat taking the brunt of the force. Jaune grunted and pushed back, and – to his surprise – the tank slid back a dozen feet until it crashed into the other tank. He blinked in surprise; he was _that_ strong again? He shook it off and rushed forward, raising the Keyblade in his right hand over his shoulder and aiming the tip at the tank. Fenrir's tip exploded with a sphere of black, a powerful Gravity spell. "Force!" Upon driving his Keyblade into the tank's hull, the metal twisting at the point of contact, the spell shot out, piercing through the other side of the tank and fully casting. The Graviga sphere burst into reality between the tanks, and they were forced further into each other than they could be. Metal creaked and warped as it was forced to nearly occupy the same space. The pull didn't stop until the tanks were fused together irrevocably, destroyed completely.

Yang nodded grimly at him and he returned the look. "That didn't take long at all," Jaune said quietly before casting a glance at the tanks again.

"The world is falling apart and they attack their own people," Yang said, turning towards the tanks as well. "The guys driving these could have stopped when they got the order."

"It's harder to say no than you'd think," Jaune said quietly. "It's wrong, and they should have said no, but... when you think you're irredeemable, you'll go along with any orders you get. Who else would accept you?"

"You made the right decision." Yang pointed out, and the Keyblade warrior blushed.

"Eventually," Jaune agreed as he turned to her. He smiled softly. "I just wish they had, too."

She walked up and grabbed his arm. "Not everyone's as cool as you," Yang said with a grin, and Jaune's face turned beet red.

"I, er, I mean, that's... Thanks, Yang," he said, clutching her hand back.

He turned towards the city as a painfully strong scent of Darkness suddenly filled the city, overpowering the ocean of death and Darkness that already drowned it. Jaune's fist tightened on the Keyblade. "Something's coming."

"What?" Yang asked, following his gaze. A cloud of Darkness began to congeal where they were looking. As she studied, she noticed what looked like... a tiny person with long white hair and wings. "Sephiroth? Why didn't he run for the tower?"

"I think... I think he wants to be complete. That's what he said in Nibelheim, right?" Jaune asked, glancing at Yang. She nodded. "Then he's spreading all this Darkness for that fight. He wants to feed on this Darkness so he's stronger for that fight. The real fight."

The Darkness began to solidify as they watched, turning a deep, ruby red. It was almost human in shape, with two arms and legs, but it was too long and oddly shaped for that. Its arms were longer than it sbody, and its neck stretched upward with deep yellow eyes burning in its draconian skull. The arms both ended in three, cruel looking claws of steely metal. A black and yellow Heartless emblem was emblazoned on its chest and the crown of its head. "That thing's huge," Jaune muttered as he saw the creature loom over buildings, its claws sweeping smaller ones away.

"When has that ever stopped us?" Yang asked, raising her hands... and Jaune's, which both now realized was still held tight in hers. They glanced at one another, both slowly turning red again. "I mean, let me just get something!" She tore her hand out of his and yanked her Scroll out. "Let's see... here!" A bright green light began to glow in front of them, swirling on the ground. A moment later, Yang's new bike – which she had yet to name – appeared on the ground in front of them. She leaped onto it without another word and kickstarted the engine. "There, now we can get there fast, and in style!" She turned around, still a little red. "Hop on, and no puking."

"Right!" Jaune muttered, jumping on behind her.

"Hold on tight," Yang commanded as his left hand wrapped around her waist, the Keyblade dangling on their right Then she gunned the engine and they shot down the road almost as quickly as their hearts were beating.

 _ **R W B Y**_

Sora, Cloud, and Tifa all tapped their feet impatiently as they ascended in the elevator, listening to the smooth, jazzy tunes of muzak. Sora turned and stared out of the glass elevator, clenching his jaw as he stared out at the city. The smoke and flames from all across the city were more visible up here, as was the burning Darkness that was given form by the terror, rage, and destruction below. He could practically hear the shrieking Heartless, the screams of the dying. It hurt him. A quick look at his new partners and he could see they had the same problem. They, like him, had experienced this before. Darkness and death were unfortunately the common companions to people who fought those forces. Sora had hoped that, upon their Hearts' rebirth, his friends might have had an easier life this time around. He was sadly unsurprised that their lives had gone this way. The death below made him even more sad; no matter how quickly they defeated Sephiroth, countless people below would die, and many already had. "Don't feel guilty, Cloud," Tifa said suddenly, grabbing his arm.

"Sephiroth and I, we're not just connected, Tifa," Cloud said softly. "We're two halves of a whole person. This is my fault."

"Bull," Tifa snapped, startling the swordsman. "Not a whole person? Even if that used to be true, we both know it isn't anymore. Me, Jaune, Yang, Barret, Yuffie, and everyone else – we're your other half now. Even Aerith."

"Tifa's right, Cloud," Sora said, interjecting despite the pair's unsure feelings at hearing a complete stranger's advice. "You've made decisions to stop him, to fight him. I had a friend who was just like you, once. Ven and Vanitas weren't the same person by the end of things, because Ven made the right choices and Vanitas didn't. That sounds like you and Sephiroth to me."

Cloud glanced at his feet, then back up at Sora. "Have we... met before?" he asked suddenly. "I know Jaune and Yang said we just remind you of someone, but that pep talk worked, and I feel like I've gotten one like it before."

Sora grinned wide at Tifa and Cloud. "Maybe we were friends in another life," Sora said with a laugh. He turned back to the door just as the elevator beeped and it came to a stop. The Keyblades appeared in his hands again and he exited the elevator with Cloud and Tifa at his sides. "Where to now?"

"We follow that," Cloud muttered, pointing towards one hallway. The lights were dim, many destroyed.

Tifa glanced over. "Can you tell how close Sephiroth is?"

Cloud's eyes shut tight and his face contorted in concentration. "I think... I can feel him in the city." His eyes opened and he frowned. "But he's not at the tower yet."

"Isn't that good news?" Sora wondered, pulling the Master Keeper up onto his shoulder as he raised a confused eyebrow.

Tifa and Cloud glanced at one another. "Not really, no," Tifa said. "If he's already in the city and he's not here, that means he's up to something."

"I hate to give him a compliment, but he isn't stupid," Cloud said with a growl. "He enjoys the death out there, but he focuses on what he deems important. He's doing this for a reason." He shook his head. "But we can't stop that right now. We have to hurry to the roof before he gets there."

"Don't worry about what he's doing out there," Sora said as he saw Cloud and Tifa's anxious looks. "Jaune and Yang are out there, and they can handle whatever is coming. When those two are together, no one in the World could beat them." He readied the Keyblades and moved towards the darkened hallway.

He responded the moment a Neoshadow jumped out of the wall, spinning its claws in attempt to tear his Heart from his body. The No Name in his left hand dispersed it before it could get close to him. He lowered the weapon and frowned. "Is there another way around?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the hallway.

"I wish," Cloud muttered. "This is it."

Tifa glanced past Sora and sighed. "Jeez. Just my luck." She put her fist on her hip. "Cloud leads me in to crazy bullshit yet again."

"You're the one that got me involved in a terrorist cell."

Sora looked over, completely lost. "Terrorists?"

"We're freedom fighters!" Tifa snapped. She glared at Cloud for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, we're always getting each other into messes, aren't we?"

"... Wouldn't trade it," Cloud said. He turned to the hallway. "Right?"

Tifa nodded. "Not for the world."

"Then let's go," Sora said, grinning at them. He turned back to the hallway and crossed his blades in front of him. "If you keep me safe, I can weaken anything that comes after us so we can get through faster."

"Cloud's sword in a hallway? Ha! Your funeral."

"I trust you guys," Sora responded before channeling Light through the blades and around them all. "We're friends after all." The Light surrounded them, a glowing shield that pushed the Darkness in the hallway backwards, giving them enough breathing room that not every Heartless would attack them all at once. "Let's go."

The trio advanced through the hallway, Sora's Keyblade shield keeping the Heartless' at bay in the walls, their yellow eyes glaring hungrily beyond the wall of Light. Shadows and Neoshadows hissed and clawed at the wall, enraged by the invasion. Sora set his jaw and pushed back, and the weakest Heartless that attacked disappeared as soon as they tried to attack, while the stronger were forced back into the shadows. "I think this might hold," Sora said with a grin. And then the hallway ended and they were in the middle of a large, circular room, the stairs to the roof sitting at the center. Inky Darkness coated the walls, tendrils of it spreading across the ground and towards the stairs. The Darkness began to coil around and around, building upward. Sora began to uncross his Keyblades, getting ready to fight, but shouted in surprise as a burst of Darkness crashed into his wall from the hallway. He turned on his heel and shoved his Keyblades towards the incoming waves of Darkness, managing to hold it back. He was surprised by the intense power of the wave, as if it was nearly strong enough to overtake even him. "Gah... You – you guys are on your own."

"Of course," Tifa muttered, sliding her right foot back and raising her fists to glare at the growing Heartless. "Because why not?"

The spire of Darkness solidified, the Heartless emblem glowing on its face. Liquid began to leak from the base of the item, rivers of glowing blue-green that stretched all around the room. The spire uncoiled from halfway up, blooming like seven petals of a flower with the Heartless emblem emblazon within each, framing a creature within. Its head was a faceless mask with glowing red eyes, one built as an exact copy of the one Cloud had worn on that fateful mission to Nibelheim so long ago. In its right hand was clutched a massive trident with jagged, serrated tips. In its left, what looked like a cannon ready to blast them apart.

Tifa and Cloud sprinted in separate directions, splitting the attention of the Heartless. The rivers of green on the ground snapped up towards them, balloons of water magic appearing spontaneously in their paths. Cloud screamed in pain and was thrown backwards by the multicolored spheres of magic, tumbling through the air until he landed in a pool of water. One way too deep to be possible. A tentacle of solid water, glowing in the green of the pool, wrapped around his chest and grabbed tight, forcing all the air from his lungs. He tugged at the tentacle, yanking as hard as he could.

Tifa had managed to avoid her balloons, kicking out with her right fist in a Fire spell that altered her trajectory, letting her flip into the air. She barely managed to notice Cloud getting pulled into the pool and another Fire spell exploded from her feet. She rocketed towards the pool and went in, finding her old friend struggling. _Hang on_ , she mentally commanded as she raised an icy fist. She lashed out at the tentacle grasping Cloud, the Blizzard spell exploding from her fist and creating a massive pillar of ice and freezing the tentacle. The watery limb shattered as the two were thrown out of the water, gasping for air.

They didn't have any time to recover, as the rivers shot towards them again the moment they landed. Tifa tackled Cloud out of the way and they rolled to a stop just beyond the edge of the waters. "Cloud, will you stop acting like an idiot and not get caught five seconds in?" She jumped to her feet and turned to attack again. "I can't save you every time, 'Hero.'"

Cloud rolled his eyes before scrambling to his feet, swinging the Buster Sword at the incoming form of a massive tentacle of water. The honed edge of the sword, combined with the Light of his Heart, cleaved easily through the attack. Water splashed down all around him, but he was already rushing through the light rain to attack the Heartless. He jumped around the nearest river and rushed the Heartless. He swung his sword in front of him, sending out a short range blade-shaped laser that cleaved through the Balloons already sprouting up where he was heading. He continued the momentum of the Buster Sword until it was back in an attack position again, massive edge pointed at the Heartless.

Tifa had made her way through without any problems, and now the two of them were jumping at the same time with magic coating their weapons. The Heartless dodged backwards with the wriggling of a dozen octopus like tendrils and raised its canon arm in front of it. Large, solid spheres of Darkness flew out towards the pair while the trident waited to defend if they came too close. Tifa dismissed her magic and swung around, her foot catching Cloud's. Their joint kick sent her to the ground and him into the air, passing over the blast. Cloud spun his sword around him, firing off another blast that let him soar towards the Heartless. Its trident lashed forward, jagged teeth each the size o the Buster Sword in Cloud's hands. He angled his body and sword, catching the trident between to of its teeth, then twisting his sword to the side to lock the trident in place.

Tifa ran up after this, dodging whips of water as she got close. Her fists began to glow with flame energy, bright orange creating steam from the falling water in the air. The trident tried to drag away from the floating Cloud, but his blade was held too tight between the teeth and Cloud, despite having no ground, was able to pull hard enough to force the Heartless to stand still. Tifa took her chance and leaped right at the Heartless' chest, her hand glowing a bright white as she punched through. She landed softly on the ground and slid a few feet until she came to a stop. She stood tall and placed one hand on her hip, just before a pillar of flame exploded from the ground beneath the Heartless, consuming it completely. The Heartless screeched in pain while Cloud flew backwards, descending to the ground and bringing up the Buster Sword just in case. The shadow within the flames spasmed, seizing as the connections between its very atoms were burned away by magic. Then the pillar of flames vanished, leaving only some smoky Darkness that began to wisp into the air.

Cloud lowered the Buster Sword and nodded at Tifa. "Good job, Tifa," he said.

She turned and gave him a thumbs up that she quickly jerked over her shoulder. "Thanks, but don't you think we should hurry to the stairs before... that guy over there loses the wall he's holding up?"

Cloud turned towards Sora, who was staring at her, aghast. "'That guy?' We're friends! It's Sora!"

"Right! Right, sorry. Forgot," Tifa said, rushing up to grab Cloud's shoulder to drag him to the stairs. "Now hurry, Sora. We need to get to the roof!"

"You forgot my name!" Sora shouted as he turned and sprinted or the door, letting the wave of Darkness lick at his heels. The trio ran up the stairs, avoiding the Heartless. "Come on, Tifa!"

"That is a bit rude," Cloud agreed, earning an annoyed glare from Tifa.

"Shut up, 'SOLDIER.'"

 _ **R W B Y**_

The boy's Key was different now, Morrigan noted as she watched Yang and Jaune ride that little motorcycle towards the massive Heartless. The Nobody let her leg dangle off the edge of the skyscraper as the pair approached the nearby giant Heartless, the boy's Keyblade and the bike's speed combining into a deadly blade that carved through any attacking Neoshadows. Morrigan turned away from the two to glance over at the white haired maniac flying towards the central building, fighting off the urge to shiver at the sudden familiarity. What was it with Darkness fueled, white haired maniacs in the universe? Xehanort, Salem, this guy, anyone with the last name Schnee?

Her half joking reverie was shattered when the large Heartless roared, raising one of its massive claws and swinging it around, taking off the top chunks of buildings around it before it began to advance. A burst of wind flew past her, pushed by the Heartless' massive form moving through the city. Yang's little motorcycle got caught up in the blast of air's path, but it seemed that the bike was worth more than the Nobody had expected, for it carved through the wind and carried the blondes towards the Heartless. Yang hooked a turn and shot towards a large ramp made of broken building. The bike skidded side to side for a moment as it hit the ramp, and once it was stable Yang gunned the engine. Flames shot out from the back of the bike, and the sound of exploding fuel accelerating the machine could even be heard from where the Nobody was atop the building. The motorcycle shot forward, leaving a trail of flames behind it as it reached the crest of the ramp. The bike shot upward, arcing towards the claw of the Heartless to land heavily on the creature and begin their ascent.

The Heartless' eyes immediately angled directly towards the motorcycle on its arm, and it let out an echoing roar. Its other arm shot towards them, glistening claws whistling as they carved the air. The boy's Keyblade shot up just before the Heartless' claw got in close, a dome of glowing hexagons catching the claws; the wall exploded upon contact and the Heartless shrieked as one of its claws was burned away by the Light, leaving only a smoking stump behind. The cycle continued its path up the Heartless' body, undeterred by the monster's enraged shaking. Morrigan pushed off of the skyscraper and fell through an open Corridor below, landing softly closer to the fight. Ah, the bike's wheels had magnetic dust spikes in them, piercing the Heartless' flesh and keeping them stuck on.

A long black container on the side shot upward suddenly, and Yang's right hand shot out to grab what it launched, a long... A long red katana glimmering with Ice Dust. Yang turned it around and buried into the Heartless' arm, the weapon carving through the monster at high speeds and leaving an ever lengthening streak of solid ice. On the left, Jaune's Keyblade had done the same, buried halfway into the Heartless' body, but with a streak of flames trailing the weapon. The rapid expansion of the flame and the contraction caused by the ice collided, shattering the arm of the Heartless just behind the bike as it continued to climb, barely a moment ahead of the collapse.

The Heartless was momentarily stunned by the intense pain and it let out a massive roar as it fell to its knees. Wind and dust flew everywhere, shaking the city to its foundations. The bike soared into the air as it was tossed from the Heartless, flipping through the air. The katana swiped into its scabbard, then back out now coated in Gravity Dust. The air shimmered around the bike and it leveled, hitting the ground on its wheels without an issue. And then the other claw of the Heartless arced up before slamming down on the bike.

Morrigan shot to her feet, a shiver of terror running down her spine. Her sword appeared out of Nothingness, and her legs tensed to leap in an help.

It was a pointless effort, however. The boy – Jaune – had already rescued Yang. A flash of Light exploded from beneath the Heartless' claw and its remaining arm was vaporized, the Refleza wall surrounding the blondes was all that remained. The white hexagons shimmered for a moment, then vanished. Yang leaped out, entire body coated in flames, and punched through the Heartless' chest. Jaune leaped after her, Keyblade at his left hip in both hands glowing with a blade of Light that extended it to a length that was unmanageable for one without a Keyblade. It came forward in a quick, fluid swipe that carved easily through the wounded Heartless' neck.

The two blondes flipped and landed one after another, their feet barely making a noise as they hit the street. The Heartless was smoke in the wind, a glowing, crystalline Heart floating towards the sky.

Morrigan's sword dipped to scrape against the top of the skyscraper, dragging the blade's edge across the steel. "You are really having a hard time letting go, aren't you?" Morrigan's head slowly turned so she could gaze behind her with her peripheral vision. It was the blonde – the other version, if she assumed correctly. His hair was longer than the one with Yang, and his eyes weren't the same blue, instead tinged with gold. "I guess I'm not one to talk, though. I won't let go of Pyrrha."

Morrigan turned and raised her sword, aiming the tip at OJ's throat. "What do you want?" she wondered coolly.

OJ raised one hand and shook it in front of him. "Oh, it isn't a fight I'm looking for. Not with you," he explained simply. He placed both his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "I thought Nobodies were supposed to have an easy time letting go of old connections."

"What connections do I have to let go of?" Morrigan growled back.

OJ gave her a dry glare before he sighed and shrugged. "Well, I'm not here to argue about that," he explained. "I'm here to make an alliance."

"I have no interest in helping you destroy the universe," Morrigan responded, annoyed. She lowered her blade.

"It won't destroy the – ugh. Fine, but you do have an interest in two things: surviving, and ridding yourself of your weakness," OJ pointed out with a shrug. "As it happens, I have an interest in you doing both of those things."

Morrigan couldn't help but scoff at that. "And what would a Keyblade warrior like you want with me?"

"Simple. I need you to kill Yang," he explained. "She keeps getting in the way." He turned and began to pace along the roof. "And I'll help you shut out the feelings that keep you from hurting her."

"I have no feelings keeping me from hurting Yang," Morrigan dismissed.

OJ turned and pointed at her. "But you called her Yang just now. What happened to 'my weakness?'"

Morrigan didn't have a response for that.

OJ stopped pacing and grinned at the Nobody. "Now, as I was saying, I can help you get rid of those pesky feelings that make you want to give her snuggles, and when we have everything we need, I'll take you to the next universe and you can do whatever you want."

Morrigan cocked her head to the side. "Is that so?" OJ nodded. Morrigan frowned and asked, "And just how would you remove those feelings? That is, if they did exist."

"Well, _if_ they did exist," OJ began, pulling a hand out and gesturing at her, "I would use the Night Howler Core."

"And you have this Core?"

OJ's face turned red. "Well, not... not right _now,_ " he explained sheepishly, his hand moving to the back of his head.

Morrigan turned to leave. "No, wait! We can get it, if you give me a bit of help!" OJ rushed forward and grabbed her arm to turn her around. "Look, they have a trap for me, but not for you. And not for what I'm going after. They'll give it to me when all is said and done, then we can wipe away any desire you have to keep her safe, and we can move on to the next timeline. In fact, that's one reason I'm here. For the next piece. By the time I have it, I should already have another one. Over halfway there. Odds are in my favor, Morrigan. Use that Nobody logic."

Morrigan glared at him but did as he suggested, and... it did look as if he could win. At the very least, he could give her a far better chance of exterminating Ya – her weakness. And if she helped him and he succeeded... well, she would be free. A stronger being in a new world that could... simply be free. "It's a good deal," OJ pointed out nervously.

"... So it is," Morrigan agreed. She dismissed her katana and held her hand out to the Keyblade wielder. "We have a deal... but I won't be left behind to possibly die if the next timeline isn't the one you want. You take me as far as you go, and I'll help you get there every time."

OJ stared at her hand for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Sounds like a fair deal," he finally said. His hand came up and grasped hers, giving it a single shake. He looked up into her eyes. "Partner."

"Partner," Morrigan greeted in return as she let go of his hand. She turned and looked at her weakness again. She and Jaune were on the bike again, heading towards the center of the city. "Now what?"

"I go hide and steal the Black Materia from whichever side is lucky enough to win it," OJ explained. "And you meet with my... hired help. I believe you have worked with Emerald before."

"I am surprised that she would agree to help you. Did something happen to the boy?"

"She didn't decide to help. But she is."

Morrigan nodded. "As long as you are aware that her allegiance is your responsibility."

"Then she won't be a problem, and she'll be less of one when we get the Core." He pulled out his Scroll and swiped to a map. "Head to this location in the Emerald Forest. If I'm right, she should be back already. Oh! And before I forget, you need to tell her a passphrase so she won't attack. It's 'Cinder sent me.'" He laughed. "Thought it would be funny to use that monster as the phrase to control her."

Morrigan didn't find it all that funny. "Then I shall head out now." She turned and vanished through the newly summoned Corridor of Darkness. "And know that I would not take betrayal... well."

"Me neither, Birdy," OJ responded darkly.

 _ **R W B Y**_

The Black Materia hummed quietly in its container, energy pulled from the ingot powering the entirety of Shinra's main building. Sora could feel the energy traveling through the tubes now that he was this close. It was dark, deadly. It was calling to the Heartless in the city, summoning them from dozens of other worlds. Worse, it was calling Sephiroth. Even at Sora's strongest, Sephiroth had been a difficult enemy to battle. And the white haired jerk had been going easy on him back then. But, this was a different Sephiroth, one that had less experience with his abilities, and one faced with a Cloud far more willing to connect with the Light within his friends. With them and his improved abilities, the Sephiroth he had fought would be hard pressed to win.

But Sora still thought that his unlimited flying was cheating.

Sephiroth was rocketing towards them, the air whistling behind him. The large wing on his back flapped every so often, propelling him, while the smaller ones extending from his hips moved slightly to maintain his balance. "He's coming in fast," Tifa said as she walked up to the edge of building, keeping herself between the incoming madman and the stairs leading up to the materia. "If anyone has any ideas to slow him down when he gets here, I'd voice them now."

"I can set Mines and Balloon magic," Sora said, already moving to place mines around the roof and floating balloons in the air.

"That'll have to be enough," Cloud said. He pulled the Buster Sword out, twirling it until he could hold it out to his side.

Sephiroth was floating above them, observing the trap spells with a disinterested smirk. "Oh, it won't be," he smugly stated before turning his eyes on Sora. His smirk slowly vanished, replaced with an annoyed snarl. "You remind me of an annoying dream I had once. I'll like killing you."

"God. Edgy much?" Tifa growled, leaping up behind him and bringing her fist around at his head. "How about you just _die!?_ "

He twirled around her attack, kicking her in the back. She hit the ground and tumbled back to her feet between Sora and Cloud. The three glared up at the former SOLDIER, defiant with wills steeled against the coming fight. "This already isn't a fair fight," Sephiroth said with a smirk.

"I know," Sora responded with a grin. "And once Yang and Jaune get here, it'll be more of a massacre with how easy we'll get rid of you." His Keyblade collided with Sephiroth's sword before the blade could reach his throat. Sora's grin grew wider as he met the glare of the white haired warrior. "After all, Cloud could beat you one on one. With us, it's a done deal."

"Could you stop taunting the world's deadliest warrior?!" Tifa snapped as she and Cloud got into their combat stances. "For five minutes!?"

Sora laughed. "No."


End file.
